BHUBANESWAR | Jan 11, 2016: The state government on Monday promised to provide modern housing and sanitation facilities to people affected by mining within the next two years. The government would spend around Rs 900 crore for infrastructure development in 508 villages of eight mineral bearing districts.

"In two years we plan to saturate all the housing needs in villages affected by mining. They will have piped water supply and sanitation facilities," chief minister Naveen Patnaik tweeted after chairing a high-level meeting.

Forest and environment secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, who was present in the meeting, said funds are available with the Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Corporation (OMBADC), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) created for development of mines-affected areas. Chief secretary is ex-officio chairman of the OMBADC, which has been registered as a company.

The SPV had accumulated around Rs 869 crore from money deposited with it from forest diversion proposals by miners in the affected areas, which has been deposited in banks as fixed deposits. Adding the bank interests with the fixed deposits, the total available funds has crossed 920 crore.

Mohapatra said the panchayati raj and rural development departments would prepare detailed project reports (DPRs) of the villages. "Works would start as soon as the departments prepare the DPRs. The allocation of funds to different districts would depend on funds generated from the respective areas," he said.

The villages include highest 192 from Keonjhar district, mostly located in Joda-Badbil mining belt, followed by 129 in Sundargarh, 75 in Jharsuguda and 40 in Angul districts while the rest villages are from Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj and Koraput.

Apart from pucca (roof and walls) houses, the funds would be used for providing safe drinking water, pucca village roads among other infrastructure facilities to them. Green belts would also be created in and around these villages. Besides, the SPV would also work on creating livelihood for the mines affected villagers, Mohapatra said.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)