Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik urges Centre to allow state to avail World Bank, ADB loans

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today wrote to Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari seeking inclusion of the state for financial aid from World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and others to ensure safe drinking water for all.

"I would therefore request you to consider including the state of Odisha in the list of states for which financial assistance will be sought for from these (WB and JICA) external funding agencies during the current financial year," he said in the letter.

Patnaik said, as part of the state government's commitment to set up large-scale drinking water infrastructure to provide safe drinking water to all sections of the rural population in their premises in a phased manner it had initiated efforts to accomplish the objective by identifying the potentiality of surface water sources.

To meet this challenge, a mega pipe water supply project had been taken up based on surface water sources like large water bodies, dams and perennial rivers, Patnaik said.

As implementation of the projects required huge funding, the state government needs financial assistance from international funding agencies like the World Bank, JICA, and Asian Development Bank ( ADB), Patnaik said, requesting the Centre to include Odisha in the list of states to avail the external assistance.