To ensure planned and inclusive development of cities/towns into liveable, economically vibrant and productive, sustainable and efficient entities with provision of adequate and durable public infrastructure and amenities, including affordable housing and livelihood opportunities for all sections of society and bringing out efficiency in the service delivery mechanisms, community participation and accountability of Urban Local Bodies and parastatal agencies towards citizens, in convergent manner.

Realizing our vision by embarking on implementing urban reforms and e-governance; strengthening urban planning with citizens' participation, enforcing municipal rules/regulations, building capacity of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to deliver services, creating and maintaining urban infrastructure, mobilising effective water supply and sanitation systems including solid waste management, developing public spaces and amenities, making provision of affordable housing for urban poor and MIG, upgrading skills of the urban poor for increasing their employability and improving economic condition.

• Facilitating reforms and policy interventions to improve the financial base of ULBs & their interface with citizens in service delivery.
• Improving urban planning, governance & capacity development of the ULB personnel for effective implementation of plans and rules, efficient urban management and service delivery.
• Enhancing service standards, choice of citizens, transparency, accountability and simplifying process for grievance redressal.
• Encouraging PPP projects for urban infrastructure development and urban services including urban transport.
• Effectively implementing affordable housing schemes for the Economically Weaker Sections, Lower Income Group, Lower Middle Income Group and Middle Income Group.
• Effectively implementing programmes for urban poverty reduction.
• Effectively implementing and operating water supply, sewerage, solid-waste management, storm water drainage and other urban development projects.
• Encouraging innovations in urban development.

• Implementation of urban governance reforms (Eg: AMRUT, 14th Finance Commission, etc).
• Formulation & implementation of enabling policies/guidelines.
• Implementation of Comprehensive Development Plans (CrDP), City Development Plans (CDP) & Master Plans (MP).
• Capacity development of existing personnel & elected representatives.
• Effective implementation of e-governance programmes.
• Creation of a dedicated Urban Cadre.
• Benchmarking urban services (Service Level Benchmarking-SLB).
• Formulation & implementation of Citizen's Charter; Public Disclosure Law.
• Formulation & implementation of PPP Policy on Urban Development.
• Facilitating PPP projects in urban infrastructure, transport & solid-waste management.
• Encouraging group productive activities of urban poor women for economic entitlement.
• Dovetailing non-govt./private/corporate partners for skill training & placement of youth.
• Formulation and implementation of Affordable Housing scheme with mandatory provision for creation of housing stock.
• According limited property rights to the slum dwellers and prevention of new slums.
• Mobilization of fund from various sources for successful implementation of flagship projects.
• Ensuring effective monitoring, reporting & review of projects, confirming to the project time line.
• Designing & implementation of innovative pilot projects in selective areas with community participation.
• Implementation of replicable models/good practices.

Segments

The H&UD Department functions through three Directorates, viz., Directorate of Municipal Administration (attached to the Department), Directorate of Town Planning and Chief Engineer, Public Health Engineering Organization (Urban). Besides, there are 5 Public Health (PH), SE Circles, 19 PH Divisions, 56 PH Sub-divisions, 20 District Town Planning Units, 110 Urban Local Bodies including (5 Municipal Corporations, 45 Municipalities and 60 Notified Area Councils), 9 Development Authorities, 7 Regional Improvement Trusts, 36 Special Planning Authorities, Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB), Odisha Water Supply & Sewerage Board (OWSSB), Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), Valuation Organization, NIHM, SUDAand OUIDF.

Municipal Administration in Odisha is managed by the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA), which is the apex administrative organization that regulates functioning of all Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and Notified Area Councils in performing their regulatory and enforcement activities; by adhering to the policies, procedures and guidelines provided by the Govt. to achieve effective municipal administration in the state. It also does the monitoring and supervision of the developmental functions of the Urban Local Bodies.

The Directorate of Municipal Administration is headed by the Director, Municipal Administration. S/he coordinates the various activities of Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and Notified Area Councils in the field of municipal tax administration, financial management, infrastructure development, town planning, urban health and sanitation, environment management and programmes for the urban poor etc. DMA interacts with several other Departments and Directorates such as Public Health Engineering Organization, Town Planning, Development Authorities and OWSSB etc. to enable seamless delivery of urban civic services to the citizens. The Directorate has the responsibility to supervise the function of the Urban Local Bodies, work out suitable human resource policies, exercise disciplinary control over the staff, monitor the tax collection activities, lay down policies for transparency in expenditure, hear appeals against the decisions of ULBs, release the Government funds to the ULBs, as well as monitor implementation of schemes and programmes. The Directorate also inspects the activities of ULBs, interacts with both elected representatives and the employees to find out both genuine and specific problems of urban administration and urban municipal services and work out the solutions for those problems.

The DMA, in his/her supervisory role, monitors the functioning of the ULBs against key parameters such as tax collection, execution of project and civic works, implementation of various schemes of the Government etc., on the basis of which performance evaluation of all ULBs is made on an annual basis. Accordingly, the best performing Municipal Corporation, 3 Municipalities and 3 NACs are felicitated at the national level urban workshop organized by the H & UD Dept. in Bhubaneswar.