IAS Trainees Visit Odisha to Learn About Jaga Mission

Bhubaneswar: 16 officers from Indian Administrative Services from different States on Monday visited Odisha to learn about the State Government’s Jaga Mission, which is the world’s largest slum titling programme focusing on empowerment of urban poor by providing land rights and upgrading slums into liveable habitat by providing basic infrastructures.

The IAS trainees from Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra visiting Odisha on their Bharat Darshan programme were at Jaga Mission office under Housing & Urban Development Department to get in-depth knowledge on Jaga Mission programme.

Bharat Darshan Programme is a segment of training programme for promoted officers from State Civil Services into the Indian Administrative Service, conducted by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. Under this programme they will be visiting important National Institutions and infrastructure projects across India.

Sangramjit Nayak, Director Municipal Administration- cum- Mission Director-Jaga Mission took the opportunity and recount the journey of the mission, with a comprehensive understanding of the mission and its significance in achieving sustainable urban development. He re-iterates the mission’s objective of transforming all the slums of state into liveable habitat by December, 2023. With all the good work happened under the mission, its impact in life of slum dwellers and slum dwellers associations, and the global recognition accorded so far. During the interactive the officers were curious to know the time took to get the initial results, how slum dwellers associations are accepted by the administration, what is the way forward, etc..

Then the trainees visited Topaban and Inshaneswar slums of BMC to witness the up gradation happened under Jaga Mission and interact with the Slum Dwellers Associations to understand their prospective about the Mission. At Tapoban & Ishaneswar Slum, team interacted with Slum Dwellers Association, where Slum Dwellers Association expressed how they have worked as implementing partner to the ULB for getting the construction work done, how they are taking care of sanitation aspect of their slum. Team inquired the education of children and other social developments The team members were overwhelmed by seeing the good work and involvement of slum dwellers for making the mission successful and sustainable.

After return from slum visit the trainee officers had an interactive session with G Mathi Vathanan, Principal Secretary H&UD Department. The Principal Secretary briefed them the Urban Transformative journey experiencing significant strides in recent years in accordance with 5T mantra of administration in Odisha. The State Government is committed for the enhancement of the liveability of the urban areas by providing all advance amenities across all 115 ULBs of the State. The key thrust area like Urban sanitation,Mukta, Jaga Mission, drink from tap and over all recognising the crucial role of slum dwellers as community partners in building and sustaining cities was explained to them.

During the interaction and field visit among others the Additional Mission Director Jaga Mission Sourindra Kumar Routray, Additional Commissioner BMC Laxmikant Sethy , Suchisnata Sahoo and her team from Jaga Mission were present and discuss about the background, objective, impact and achievement so far on providing land rights to slum dwellers, transformation of slums into liveable habitat and creation of new liveable habitat.