CM declares hike in honorarium, sitting fee for PRI members

--Emergency ambulance service flagged off

BHUBANESWAR: On the occasion of Panchayati Raj Divas, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday while addressing the PRI members here declared hike in honorarium and sitting fee for the Panchayati Raj representatives. The State Government would spend Rs 50 crore for the purpose, said Patnaik in the function.

Patnaik in his speech said the Government has received 87 lakh proposals through Pallisabha and Gramsabha for the first time and they would give work order in April and May this year to speed up the works of the villages. Similarly, the Panchayati Raj department has started the process to fill up the vacancy of 1361 Gram Sevaks and other posts of the department, he added.

The Chief Minister said the State Government would provide Rs 5 lakh each for 854 Zilla Parishad zone during the year 2013-14 and for which Rs 46 crore has been allotted in the budget. He appealed the PRI members to help in executing the Government welfare schemes and programmes in the villages to fulfill the dream of Biju Patnaik to make Odisha a developed State.

For the best performances, the PRI bodies were awarded on the Panchayati Raj Divas. Ganjam and Nabarangpur got award as best Zilla Parishads in the State and they were awarded Rs 5 lakh each. Similarly, five Panchayat Samities were selected for securing best place in the State among which Hinjilicut and Nabarangpur got Rs 3 lakh cash award. The other selected panchayats of the State were also rewarded with Rs 1 lakh each for their best performance.       

On the sidelines of the Panchayati Raj Divas Samaroh, the much awaited 24X7 Emergency Medical Ambulance Service (OEMAS) was launched by the Chief Minister in the presence of Health and Family Welfare Minister Damodar Rout here at the same venue. Now it would be easy to get ambulance service after dialing 108. The average response time of 20 minutes for urban locations, 25 minutes for semi-urban and 35 minutes for rural locations has been kept as performance parameters.

There would be a total number of 420 ambulances for the entire State but in phases. In the first phase, 280 ambulances would be operationalised in above 15 identified districts- Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Ganjam, Rayagada and Koraput. Ziqitza Health Care, a private service provider, would extend the support in providing the services.

Among others, Panchayati Raj Minister Kalpataru Das, ST and SC Development Minister Lal Bihari Himirika, Women and Child Development Minister Usha Devi, Rural Development Minster Bikram Keshari Arukh, Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya, MLAs and MP of Bhubaneswar, Principal Secretaries of Health and Family Welfare, Panchayati Raj Department, officials of Panchayati Raj Department and more than 14000 PRI members were present in the Samaroh.