Bhubaneswar | June 23, 2016: The Odisha government has started the process for construction of piped drinking water supply projects in 523 villages of eight districts affected by mining operations.

The Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Corporation (OMBADC) funds, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), has already released ₹243 crore in the first phase, Rural Development Secretary MS Padhi said today. Odisha Chief Secretary AP Padhi has directed the officials to complete the tender process by July-end.

New houses

This apart, the State government has decided to construct houses in 543 villages in the first phase and funds will be sanctioned per house on the basis of current growth rate, an official said.

An amount of ₹1.20 lakh will be provided per house in plain areas and ₹1.25 lakh per house in hilly areas, Panchayatiraj Secretary Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh said, adding that around 50,000 houses will be constructed in the mining affected villages.

The Chief Secretary instructed officials to cover the landless families under house distribution project on a priority basis by providing them homestead land under the Vasundhra scheme.

Each landless family will be provided 4 decimals of homestead land, officials said, adding that project proposals for providing long-term training to 200 ST/SC children were also approved at the meeting.

Around 1.46 lakh will be spent for the training per head, they said.

Funds allocation

OMBADC General Manager Subash Chandra Swain said ₹150 crore for rural housing, ₹50 crore for water supply and ₹20 crore for farm forestry had been provided to the concerned departments from the company’s corpus.

The Chief Secretary directed the SPV to hold a meeting of the board of directors at least once in every three months for monitoring the work.

(Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/)