A total of 11,434 projects worth about Rs 6438. 23 crore have been taken up under the District Mineral Fund (DMF) in the minerals-bearing districts of the State by December-end, 2018.
This was revealed at a high-level review meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the State Secretariat recently. Padhi directed concerned departments to keep tab of the DMF projects and tune them with the departmental projects so as to avoid any duplication and augment the outcomes for the people.
Out of total 11,434 projects, 9,044 are in the high priority sectors like drinking water, education, environment preservation, pollution control, health and sanitation, skill development and livelihood activities. The balance 2,378 projects are related to sectors like physical infrastructure, irrigation, watershed, energy and afforestation etc.
Review said Angul, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Koraput, Mayurbhanj and Rayagada are the top eight districts in the matters of DMF collection and allocation. Out of total 11,434 projects, 11,254 have been taken in these eight districts.
Among others, Development Commissioner Asit Kumar Tripathy, Steel and Mines ACS Raj Kumar Sharma and Forest and Environment ACS Suresh Chandra Mohapatra participated in the review.