As many as 691 villages of 30 blocks in eight districts have been brought under the purview of the Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) fund for inclusive developmental activities.
This was decided in the OMBADC review meeting taken by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here.
Reviewing activities of the Corporation, Chief Secretary Padhi directed the Chief Executive Officer and PCCF Subash Chnadra Mishra to prioritize housing, drinking water, sanitation and afforestation activities on saturation mode in all these villages.
Padhi also directed all departments to implement the schemes of their respective departments on saturation mode covering all eligible households. Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan advised to ensure road connectivity along with service availability in all remote and isolated hamlets of the area.
The OMBADC was incorporated as a non-profit Government company in the year 2014 for carrying forward holistic developmental activities in the mining affected areas. PCCF Mishra appraised that about 50 per cent of NPV collected from the mining leases would be utilized through the corporation for basic developmental activities in the identified villages.
The State Govt had provided Rs 1 lakh as token share capital at the initial level for formation of the Corporation. So far, the Corporation has got a fund of around Rs 1,000 crore.
In the meanwhile, a survey of the mining affected areas has been completed and 691 villages under 129 GPs of 30 blocks in eight districts have been identified for inclusion under the OMBADC fund.
These districts are Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Koraput, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh.
As of now, the projects of worth Rs 900 crore have been approved for these villages. These include 29,829 housing units, 196 drinking water projects, 855 hectares block plantation, 842 km avenue plantation, 3,600 hectares of assisted natural regeneration and 9,800 seedling plantation in towns of the mining affected areas.
Chief Secretary Padhi directed the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department to complete all the housing projects by December, 2017. The department was also asked to ensure piped water supply to each and every household in the identified villages.