BHUBANESWAR | Aug 16, 2017: The state government has so far collected over Rs 1,000 crore under the Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) fund for development of the people in mining affected areas.

The state government has identified as many as 691 villages in eight mineral-bearing districts like Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Kendujhar, Koraput, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh to spend the fund constituted in January 2014, official sources said.

The OMBADC was constituted with the contribution of money from the mining lessees.

A review meeting headed by chief secretary A P Padhi here revealed that projects of worth Rs 900 crore have been approved for these villages under the OMBADC. These include 29,829 housing units, 196 drinking water projects, plantations and forest regeneration in the areas affected by mining, said an official statement issued by the chief secretary's office.

The chief secretary also directed the officials to extend benefits of the fund to all eligible households. Development commissioner R Balakrishnan, who was also part of the meeting, advised to take up construction of road projects to the inaccessible areas by utilizing the fund.

It was decided to complete all the housing projects with toilets and running water by December, 2017. The panchayati raj and drinking water department was also asked to ensure piped water supply to each and every household in the identified villages.

Similarly, the forest department was asked to intensify plantation activities for increasing green coverage in the area. It was further decided to take up intensive soil and moister conservation activities in all forest pockets of the identified area.

The Supreme Court in its August 2 verdict on illegal mining in Odisha has asked the chief secretary to file an affidavit about the developmental activities undertaken through OMBADC.

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