Bhubaneswar: A total number of 12,649 projects estimated around Rs 8074 cr have been taken up under District Mineral Fund (DMF) in various districts by end of July 2019. This was known from a high-level review committee held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy in Lok Seva Bhawan here today.
Reviewing the progress of the projects, Tripathy directed concerned departments to prepare a five-year perspective action plan indicating the projects under DMF and advise the district Trusts to prioritise the works as per their local need. 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.
Further, the Chief Secretary directed the departments of Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water, Rural Development, Water Resources and Works to deploy more technical manpower at the ground level through outsourcing for expeditious implementation of the projects. It is pertinent to mention here that the majority of the projects sanctioned under DMF are within the orbit of these departments. Chief Secretary directed to enhance the financial sanctioning power of the Superintending Engineers from Rs 4 cr to Rs 10 cr for quick sanction of the projects.
It was decided in the meeting that the progress of the projects at ground level would be regularly reviewed over video conferencing with the Collectors in each month. Chief Secretary asked the Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of the departments having DMF projects to hold a meeting of the district level officers of their respective departments and orient them towards timely completion of the projects. Tripathy said, “The district-level officers including the departmental officers should have a clear cut vision of the projects”. Departments were advised to keep a tab of the projects for avoiding any possible duplication of allocations and maximise their outcomes.
District wise review of the programmes showed that the districts namely Angul, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Sundargarh. are the Top-Five districts in the matters of DMF collection and allocation. Out of total 12, 649 projects in different districts, these five districts have 11,126 projects. Angul district has 2918 number of projects estimated around Rs 1097 cr, Jajpur has 2691 projects of worth Rs 1125 cr, Jharsuguda has 638 projects of worth Rs 1125 cr, Keonjhar has 854 projects of worth Rs 2488 cr and, Sundargarh has 4025 projects estimated around Rs 2025 cr.
Joint Secretary Planning and Convergence Department, PK Mahakud appraised, “As of now, around Rs 7600 cr has been collected by various districts under DMF. Out of this around Rs 8074 cr has been allocated against different projects by the respective district trusts. The base works of the projects like survey, foundation, groundwork etc have been completed with the utilisation of around Rs 1900 cr.” Since the projects have reached the takeoff phase, the expenditure under this head would go up in the coming months.
Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Principal Secretary Rural Development Pradeep Kumar Jena, Principal Secretary Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary Housing & Urban Development G. Mathivathanan, Secretary Water Resources Vishal Gagan, Secretary Works Kishan Kumar, MD OLIC Archana Patnaik along with senior officers of the concerned departments participated in the review.
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