Chairing the meeting, Development Commissioner-cum-ACS Anu Garg stressed on expediting EAP which is aimed at protecting the poor and vulnerable households from the impact of economic and climate shocks in Odisha. It would be possible by managing disaster-risks, and facilitating better use of digital data for resilience, service delivery and planning.

The Central Government has signed this agreement with the World Bank on July 14 with a cost of Rs.1,183 crore and the State Government’s funding is Rs.367 crore. The project has been declared effective from August 11 by the World Bank. The State Cabinet has approved this project on December 27 in 2022.

The will augment government effort in three areas like Increasing Coverage and scale up of an Adaptive Social Protection System, Disaster Risk Management Planning and Programmes through the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), R&DM Department, Electronics & IT Department and Better Data Quality through Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES). An Independent Verification Agent (IVA) will assess the results achieved by the relevant line agencies.

The different component of the project include: (i) Development and Implementation of Social Protection Delivery Platform (SPDP) (ii) State Data Policy guidelines and documentation for future roll out and adoption and (iii) Strengthening resilience through deployment of early warning dissemination technology systems, and expanded citizen outreach.

Strengthening Statistical Systems for Better Planning and Resilience, Improving digital access and management of data for evidence based policy making and planning, Implementation of computer assisted survey technology (CAPI) were discussed in the meeting.
Among others, Principal Secretary of Finance, Principal Secretary of Electronics & IT, other senior officers from Finance Department, Govt of Odisha and officials from World Bank Mission Team were present in the meeting.

Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture (OIIPCRA) is being implemented in 15 districts of the State with an objective is to intensify and diversify agricultural production and enhance climate resilience under four components: climate smart intensification and diversion of production; improving access to irrigation and water productivity; institutional capacity strengthening and project management.

Besides improving availability and irrigation in minor irrigation tanks, the project is taking up cross-sectoral convergence of water/ agriculture/ horticulture/ fisheries sectors to benefit farmers through increased quality of irrigation service; average yields; marketable outputs; diversified incomes; climate resilience etc.

Similarly, the Green Climate Fund is a project aimed at ground water recharge in community ponds through structural adaptation measures and use of solar pumps for micro irrigation to ensure water security in vulnerable areas. Key components of the project are adaptation of ground water recharge system, renovation of community tanks, integration of solar pumps for irrigation, capacity building of stakeholders etc.

During the review, she asked all the key departments to work in close coordination for realising the project objectives and ensuring benefits for the communities. She stressed that, besides accelerating all the activities of the projects, there is a need for pursuing innovation, building climate smart villages and leveraging technology for effective monitoring.

Among others, Principal Secretary of PR&DW Department Sushil Kumar Lohani, Principal Secretary of A&FE Arabind Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary of F&ARD Suresh Kumar Vashisth, CGM NABARD, directors of the key departments, Collectors of Ganjam and Mayurbhanj and representatives of agencies such as ICRISAT, ICARDA and IRRI and other stakeholders associated with the projects were present.

The development of the MIS is in the final stage and the portal will soon be dedicated to the officers of Water Resources department for ease of supervision and general public of Odisha at large.

So far, 200 schemes have been completed and 49 are under construction through Parbati Giri  1.0 & Parbati Giri 2.0 projects covering 3,24,000 ha of ayacut through mega lift pumping and pressurized irrigation system.

Parbati Giri Mega Lift Irrigation Project were formulated in the year of 2011-12 to provide Khariff irrigation to the uplands inside or outside irrigation commands which were deprived of flow irrigation due to locational disadvantages.

To monitor the day to day operation of completed schemes and timely operation of ongoing schemes,  IT enabled Project Management techniques- a GIS based Management Information System is being developed with the help of OCAC under IT & 5-T initiatives of the DoWR.

Similarly, another satellite based GIS application for mapping of irrigation commands, water bodies created by the DoWR starting from major reservoirs to check dams , all assets in the irrigation commands including dams, barrages ,canals with structures ,river and canal embankments ,irrigation roads, building etc to create an inventory of assets in an organized manner for operation and maintenance of the assets is being developed under the name “Odisha Jal Sampad”  with the technical help of Odisha Space application Centre. This application is another important IT & 5-T initiatives of the department which was also reviewed by the DC-cum-ACS.

Senior officers of Water Resources department and OCAC were present.