Use the Odisha Sampad atlas to identify the gaps in rural connectivity with special emphasis on the districts in the Tribal Sub-Plan areas, directed Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik to concerned officials.
Patnaik gave the direction while presiding over the governing body meeting of the Odisha Remote Sensing Application Centre (ORSAC) held recently. ORSAC CEO AK Mohapatra was asked to undertake the work in the districts of Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Nuapada in the first phase and gradually scale it up to other districts.
Discussions at the meeting revealed that the block-level resources atlas named as Odisha Sampad generated by the ORSAC through the GIS database is now working in the web mode. Along with the natural database, this atlas also contains resources like high schools, urban health infrastructures, post offices, banks and information on natural resources like secondary nutrients of soil.
The ORSAC has received the national award for this atlas. Emphasising on plying of the Janani Suraksha Express and Ambulance to all remote areas, the Chief Secretary categorically wanted that the road connectivity gaps should be identified on a priority basis in the areas where there is high incidence of malaria, poverty and malnutrition.
The review also revealed that the ORSAC has completed many remote sensing projects like geomorphology and lineament mapping, Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, Survey of Forest Area proposed for diversion projects, vetting of forest areas proposed for diversion, urban land information system, cadastral level geospatial database generation, natural resource census, land use change mapping, GIS on health infrastructure, orthoimage generation for four districts, Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack and Keonjhar, river cross section study, application of remote sensing for sericulture development, DGPS survey of mining lease areas and quality checking of digitised cadastral maps.
The quality check of the cadastral maps has been completed for 51,058 villages under 344 panchyat samitis of the 30 districts. Besides, the ORSAC has extended quality teaching transmission in Mathematics, English and Science through the EDUSAT programme for Classes-IX and X students. So far, 250 schools in remote areas of the State have been connected through the programme.
The ORSAC had utilised Rs17.59 crore in the year 2011-12 which increased to Rs18.73 crore in 2012-13. For 2013-14, the annual budget has been set at Rs33.12 crore. The work plans for 2013-14 include projects like flood mapping, monitoring and modelling in the Mahanadi catchment and basin area, space base information for decentralised planning, mapping of coastal land use in the CRZ areas, preparation of integrated thematic maps and socioeconomic survey of the proposed Mahendragiri biosphere reserve, secondary database for regional coastal process study under ICZMP, mapping through unmanned aerial vehicle and virtual reference system along with the continuing projects.
The issues relating to sanction of DA and provisions of pension for ORSAC employees were also discussed at the meeting. Development Commissioner Jugal Kishore Mohapatra and Secretary of Science & Technology DN Gupta participated in the deliberations.