Odisha government is all set to implement an ‘Odisha Rural-Urban Transition Policy’ under which basic amenities and infrastructure will be made available in the fast-growing rural areas adjoining the cities.
The new policy aimed at introducing a series of progressive and pragmatic measures to address the challenges of unplanned and unregulated urbanisation has received approval of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Presently, 19% of Odisha’s population resides in urban areas which is expected to reach 21% by 2031. The growth of census towns or peri-urban areas account for nearly 40% of the urbanisation in the State.
According to a government statement, the existing system of notification of a rural area as an urban area brings about abrupt changes in the political and administrative set-up, impacting the citizens’ socio-economic conditions as there is no window period for them to accommodate the sudden change.
Stating that these peri-urban and ‘rurban [rural-urban]’ areas were grappling with the challenge of inadequate access to social infrastructure and civic amenities and services even after declaring such areas as urban areas, the government attributed the situation to the absence of a comprehensive policy and robust institutions to contain unplanned urbanisation.
As a significant shift from the previous system, the Rural-Urban Transition Policy aims to provide urban civic amenities to the people in the identified rural areas much before the areas are formally notified as urban areas.
“Now, rural areas after an intensive process of identification will be declared as urban areas coming into effect from the date on which the tenure of the existing elected representatives expires,” the policy says.
“During the interim period, the notified rural area will be taken up for up-gradation of infrastructure and services to provide all urban services on par with the adjacent urban areas. Moreover, ward delimitation and other administrative measures will also be put in place so that from the effective date, the area will start functioning as a full-fledged urban area with all required urban infrastructure and services,” it says.
