Odisha until now has utilised about Rs 1,900 crore on various projects in areas affected by mining activities out of the Rs 7,600 crore funded by the District Mineral Foundation (DMF), a mere 25% of the net amount.
The utilised amount has been spent on completion of sanctioned projects like survey, foundation, groundwork. As the projects are in the takeoff phase, the expenditure under this head would go up in the coming months mentioned Planning and Convergence Joint Secretary PK Mahakud. A total of 12,649 projects have been taken up under DMF in different districts by the end of July 2019 amounting to Rs 8,074 crore.
Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy headed a high-level committee which reviewed the progress of these projects. Departments of the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water, Rural Development, Water Resources and Works, were asked to increase their workforce. The Superintending engineers have been given the financial liberty of Rs 10 crore. It was also decided that the progress would be regularly viewed through videoconferencing.
“The district-level officers, including departmental officers, should have a clear cut vision of the projects,” Tripathy said. Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra advised the departments to identify the critical gaps in ongoing programmes and plans, and reflect those in the perspective plan.
The district-wise review showed the highest collection from the districts of Angul, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, and Sundargarh, in the area of DMF collection and allocation. Of the total projects sanctioned, these five districts have 11,126 projects. Angul district has 2,918 projects estimated around Rs 1,097 crore, Jajpur has 2,691 projects worth Rs 1,125 crore, Jharsuguda has 638 projects worth Rs 1,125 crore, Keonjhar with 854 projects of Rs 2,488 crore and Sundargarh has 4025 projects estimated at Rs 2,025 crore.