Odisha Govt to Provide Bicycles to ‘Jala Sathis’

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has decided to provide bicycles to Jala Sathis to facilitate easy mobility in delivering various urban services.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has made this announcement while speaking at the State-Level Capacity Building Programme for empowering Jala Sathis.

Decentralisation and Community Partnership are the two eyes of Odisha model of Urban Governance and our Jal Sathis represent both, the CM said.

Jal Sathi- a 5T Initiative launched 3 years ago on pilot basis- is today managing urban water supply consumers in the entire state of Odisha. They act as a bridge between water supply authorities and the people bringing Trust in water supply representing “Quality and Dependence”. They contribute to significant improvements in metering, user charges collection, and eliminating illegal connections. As of now, as many as 740 Jal Sathis are managing 8.4 lakh consumers and water charges to the tune of Rs.67 crore have been collected, he said.

Odisha is the only state in the entire country to achieve 100 percent House connections in 85 out of 114 cities.

Based on the success of Jal Sathi program, the Government has decided to partner with Mission Shakti groups in property tax collection in all the urban areas. This is aimed at increasing the revenue collection of the ULBs as well as empowering the Mission Shakti groups with more economic opportunities.

Drink from Tap Mission providing directly drinkable water round the clock adhering to International Quality Standards has been nationally and internationally acclaimed for replication.

Odisha’s Drink from Tap and Jal Sathi have become national priorities and are now included as part of AMRUT 2.0 for implementation in all the states, the CM added.