Keonjhar: Only a small part of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) fund has been spent on development projects in mineral-rich Keonjhar district. This was revealed at the 7th trust board meeting of DMF here Wednesday.
The meeting was presided over by the Collector and the mining trustee of the DMF trust board, Ashish Thakare, in the presence of public representatives and officials from various departments.
The meeting reviewed implementation of decisions taken at the previous meeting November 25, 2017 and utilisation of funds on the projects.
The administration had granted approval to 564 projects proposed by the DMF. For these projects, Rs 1,057.30 crore was sanctioned. However, work on only 119 projects was completed and for that Rs 183.55 crore was used.
Reports revealed that the rural development division of Keonjhar, PWD of Ghatagaon, ITDA (Keonjhar), minor irrigation divisions (Keonjhar and Anandapur), Jhumpura, Bansapal, Joda, Hatadihi blocks, health department of Keonjhar, Idco (Bhubaneswar), Keonjhar Milk Union, sericulture department, Director of Technical Education and district social welfare department have not completed their projects.
The trust board expressed displeasure over the poor utilisation of funds and some departments not speeding up work on projects.
Patients have been facing a lot of problems at Champua and Anandapur hospitals whenever they have to be shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. In view of this, the Collector had stressed setting up of communication and facilitation centres at those places.
The trust board emphasised speedy steps to execute education, healthcare and drinking water projects.
Twenty-one projects involving the building of classrooms, Anganwadi centres, water supply and primary health centres in the list prepared by the DMF board have been excluded.
One project each in Hatadihi, Anandapur and Ghatagaon, two each in Joda and Telkoi, seven in Harichandanpur, three each in Bansapal and Patana blocks and mobile ambulance services in mining areas have been excluded.
Admin in a fix over satellite mapping of mining-hit villages
Keonjhar: The administration is in a fix after a controversy erupted over the satellite survey by the Odisha Space Applications Centre (OSAC) to identify mining-hit villages in Keonjhar district.
As per the satellite survey, 94 villages will be excluded from a list of mining-hit villages as identified earlier by the administration. Besides, 104 new villages were mapped within 10-km radius of mines, which will be treated as mining-affected.
OSAC had issued a letter (3613-3 dated April 24, 2017) to the district administration in this regard. The matter came to light during the trust board meeting of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Wednesday.
The district administration has identified 495 villages affected by mining on the basis of a guideline that the villages located within 10km radius from mines will be treated as mining-hit.
However, the satellite survey found that 94 of these villagers are beyond 10-km radius of mines. Now, the administration has been in a dilemma after the OSAC apprised the former of striking out those villages from the list.
Besides, OSAC’s satellite mapping has identified 104 new villages located within 10-km radius of mines and wanted the administration to include them as mining affected.
Though the letter was sent seven months ago, the administration has not taken any decision as yet.
Now, the problem for the administration is what it is going to do with the projects which are being executed with funds from the DMF in some villages recommended for exclusion.
PNN
