Bhubaneswar, Jun 17 (IANS): Odisha government on Saturday sanctioned Rs 225.53 crore in the third and last phase in favour of 36 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) covering 10 districts under its flagship scheme MUKTA for the financial Year 2023-24.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved the amount for the 36 ULBs located in the districts of Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Balangir, Subarnapur, Bargarh, Jharsuguda & Deogarh.

All these 36 civic bodies have developed ward-wise feasible annual action plans under MUKTA through a participatory process involving local citizens and key stakeholders. All these projects are demand driven, technically feasible and environmentally sustainable projects, officials said.

All these approved projects to be taken up under MUKTA will be executed directly by Mission Shakti Groups.

Different projects like climate resilient work, creation of civic amenities, open space development, waterbody development, construction of multi-purpose community centers, wall painting, city beautification and other labour-oriented works have been approved under MUKTA.A

The CM had launched the Mukhya Mantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan (MUKTA) on April 18, 2020 with a mission to create rapid, immediate and mass employment opportunities for urban poor, informal and migrant labourers, rendered unemployed and vulnerable in the face of Covid-19 infused crisis.

It is a community driven scheme tailor made for community based organisations (CBO) such as women self help groups (SHG) and slum dwellers associations (SDA) to take the center stage.

In total, the Chief Minister has sanctioned Rs. 833.21 crore in three phases covering all 115 ULBs of 30 districts of Odisha.