BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has realised around `4,000 crore under District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Trusts constituted in mineral-bearing districts till January-end and sanctioned projects worth `2,233 crore.Keonjhar district, which suffered maximum environmental degradation due to mining operations, has been allotted about `983 crore for 493 projects while projects worth `621 crore have been sanctioned for Sundargarh district.
Three other major mineral-bearing districts of Jharsuguda, Angul and Jajpur have been sanctioned projects worth `270 crore, `200 crore and `151 crore respectively, said Planning and Convergence Special Secretary DK Jena.The projects have been sanctioned under two broad heads -- high priority and other priority areas. The high priority areas included projects like housing, drinking water, health, sanitation, roads, welfare of women and children and skill development. The other priority areas include physical infrastructure, irrigation, energy, watershed development and any other measures for enhancing environmental quality in mining districts, Jena said.
Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi reviewed the progress of implementation of the sanctioned projects at the State-level monitoring committee meeting here. As the State Government has decided to utilise the penalty collected from miners for excess mining on improvement of social infrastructure in eight mineral-bearing districts, the Chief Secretary asked the district collectors to ensure that projects sanctioned under DMF and Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Corporation (OMBADC) do not overlap.
Penalty collected from the defaulting miners as per Supreme Court order has been deposited in OMBADC, a special purpose vehicle created by the State Government in April 2014, to carry out developmental activities in districts affected by excessive exploitation of minerals.
Meanwhile, the State Government has identified 691 villages under 30 blocks spread across eight districts for overall development under OMBADC. The eight districts are Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Koraput, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh.It was decided at the meeting to create an integrated project monitoring unit (IPMU) for productive utilisation of funds and better coordination of field units by utilising information technology.
The Chief Secretary advised that best practices of other States should be adopted during formulation and implementation of projects. He further asked the districts to prepare shelf of projects in advance for approval of the Government.Odisha has topped among all States in raising and utilising funds under Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKY) which is implemented under DMF.