Naveen Patnaik gives a representative of the Bhubaneswar civic body the Best Municipal Corporation Award at an event in the Odisha capital on Saturday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 8: The Odisha government is planning to create a separate cadre for employees working with urban civic bodies to provide better services to people.

Inaugurating a workshop on basic amenities for the urban poor, chief minister Naveen Patnaik today said: “Rapid economic development and urbanisation has posed new challenges. That’s why our government has initiated various measures for better urban management. As a dedicated effort is needed for efficient management of urban local bodies, our government is thinking of creating an urban officials’ cadre for this purpose.”

Three municipal corporations, 32 municipalities and 63 notified area councils of Odisha are now being run by government employees drawn from various departments on deputation.

An official source said that draft cadre rules were being prepared.

The dedicated cadre will draw professionals from the fields of business administration, accounting and engineering.

“A group of officials is needed who will deal with urban issues exclusively,” said a senior government official.

He admitted that the officials of various urban local bodies had little knowledge of civic laws and emerging urban issues. “They have little expertise to address these issues. At present, urban projects are often delayed because of lack of dedicated technical manpower. A dedicated cadre of officials with proper training and expertise will be better positioned to handle urban affairs,” he said.

Another senior officer said usually officials of the Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) cadre are posted in the urban local bodies. But now with the creation of tehsils in every block, there has been a scarcity of the OAS officers.

“Hence, deputation of the OAS officers to urban bodies will no longer be possible,” he said.

Various central schemes, including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana, which are executed by the urban local bodies, also require expertise.

“These programmes, and some state government-sponsored programmes such as Biju Saharanchal Yojana, have several dimensions such as capacity building, financial planning and database management. Only a specialised professional can handle such works with dexterity,” said an urban management expert.