RESTRUCTURING DEPARTMENTS MUST

In a group post of recent past, I have suggested to restructure departments meaningfully and create (1)Housing Department, and (2) Road Development department in Odisha. In the context of Disaster prone coastal Odisha, the suggestion has prime importance.

To minimize the administrative costs of new departments and serve meaningfully from a single window, some drastic changes required in Odisha governance reform."Housing" should be detached from Urban Development dept and likely"Disaster Management" from Revenue dept. Then both should be merged and form "Housing & Disaster Management" department.

In many of the states, Disaster Management is a special department. Odisha is a coastal and disaster prone state and HOUSING sector is more vulnerable to various natural (Phailin in Ganjam) and man-made (Riot in Kandhamal) disasters. I do believe that the progressive BJD government can do it positively. Fire Brigade should be renamed as Disaster Response Brigade with revised capacity building curriculum and come under the suggested HOUSING & DISASTER MANAGEMENT Dept.

This govt has already decided to form Watershed Management department, replacing Soil Conservation departmental entity. Watershed Management is the way to minimise a number of natural disasters.

The role of Forest & Environment department has been sidelined during last disaster in 2013. This dept has no direct connection with Environment. So it should be renamed as Forest Resources Management dept with redefined roles and functions.

(It was originally posted as Facebook Note on 7 December 2013)