Naveen Patnaik

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 23: The state government is planning to raise a special cadre of officers for the efficient management of urban local bodies (ULBs).

Sources said such a cadre has become necessary in view of rapid growth of urban centres in the state with its own specific demands.

Officials said chief minister Naveen Patnaik had issued instructions for the formulation of cadre rules including qualification criteria and the recruitment procedure. The cadre would draw professionals from the field of business administration, accounting and engineering.

“With the shortage of quality human resource in ULBs, we need good people to run them with efficient fiscal administration and execution of projects. The special cadre will help address these issues,” said a senior official of the housing and urban development department.

First hints about the formation of the cadre were dropped by the housing and urban development minister, Badrinarayan Patra while addressing a two-day workshop on ‘Urban development in Odisha: Opportunities for growth’ here on Friday.

“We need a group of individuals who will work exclusively on urban issues. They will be specialists from the areas of administration, accounting and engineering,’’ he added.

Talking to The Telegraph, commissioner-cum-secretary Sourabh Garg said: “With three municipal corporations, 32 municipalities and 63 notified area councils in the state, we are already facing a staff crunch administering them.” He said that the housing and urban development department was working on a war footing on the special cadre proposal. Commissioner, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Vishal Kumar Dev, admitted that there was a mismatch between the human resource requirement of the corporation and its existing strength. He said this had become an impediment to the timely completion of projects.

“Given the work pressure, the corporation, which last year had a budget of Rs 407.70 crore, should have four executive engineers but it has only two. Likewise, against a requirement of 40 junior engineers, 12 are running the show. While the city needs 13 assistant engineers only six are now looking after the civic works. With enormous growth in its population the city needs 32 sanitary inspectors but there are only 12,’’ said Dev.

He said time had come when the BMC area should be divided into several zones. “All this needs people with specialisation in urban affairs. So if the urban cadre comes into existence, then the efficiency in BMC will increase,’’ he added.

Joint secretary, housing and urban development department, Sanjib Mishra said: “Traditionally, Orissa Administrative Service (OAS) officers were drafted for the ULB administration, but the creation of tehsils in every block has increased pressure on the OAS cadre. Hence, deputation of OAS officers to ULBs is no more possible.”

“Many national programmmes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission have been implemented since 2005. These programmes have several dimensions including capacity building, financial planning, and database management. Only specialised professionals can handle such diverse work,” he said.