The State Government on Wednesday renamed the General Administration Department as General Administration and Public Grievances Department by merging the Public Grievances and Pension Administration Department with the GA Department.
The State Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, approved a proposal in this regard. “As most of the public grievance petitions are being put forth before the Chief Secretary, their monitoring and redressal under the direct supervision of the GA Department will be extremely useful,” Chief Secretary AP Padhi told reporters after the meeting.
In two such decisions, the Government changed the name of Panchayati Raj Department into Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department.
Supply of drinking water is vested in the PR Department. The rename would serve the purpose move effectively, said the Chief Secretary.
Similarly, the Government too merged the Mission Shakti programme with the Women and Child Development Department in order to give more focus on women empowerment. The proposal to lease out 200.435 acres of Government land free of premium and incidental charges to the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER) was also approved. The institute would built its permanent campus on the land at laudigram under Konisi Tehsil in Ganjam district, Padhi said However, the Institute would pay Rs 100 per acre as annual ground rend and cess at 75 per cent of the annual ground rent.
Similarly, the Cabinet approved a proposal for one time settlement of arrear of the industrial water rate with the Mahanadi Coalfield ltd (MCl) subject to withdrawal of various court cases.
While the Central PSU was earlier charge 2 per cent monthly compound interest on arrears bills of the MCl and six times penalty for unauthorized drawal, excess drawal and drawal below DSl of Hirakud reservoir, the Cabinet set some principles for computing arrears, which include charging of simple interest of 12 per cent per month on principal arrear and allocation of water as per requirement.
The principles would be applicable to other Central and State PSUs if they agree for one time settlement, said Padhi.