The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) constituted by the Supreme Court reviewed the status of the projects with Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy here.
Chief Executive Officer of OMBADC Uma Nanduri presented the updates for discussion. Taking a sector and project wise review of the progress, the members of the committee expressed satisfaction on the type of projects undertaken as per guidelines of the Supreme Court.
It was discussed in the meeting that the committee under the Chairmanship of PV Jayakrishnan would visit OMBADC areas in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts to see the actual state of the projects at the ground level. The committee would visit different places up to November 2 and on their return would submit its report to the Supreme Court.
A discussion in the meeting showed that OMBADC Phase-I is under implementation in 691 villages spreading over 121 gram panchayats (GPs) in 29 block of eight districts, Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Koraput, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh. In this phase, around Rs 869 crore was allotted to the State under CAMPA funding. Mainly the drinking water, housing, skill development, farm forestry and social forestry works were undertaken with the fund.
CEO Nanaduri appraised that 29,829 housing units, 244 drinking water projects and skill development for 200 ST and SC youths had been taken up. Besides, block and avenue plantation, urban plantation, seedling distribution, assisted natural regeneration and soil moisture conservation projects were taken up. So far, around Rs 860 crore has been released against these projects.
Under Phase-II of OMBADC, around Rs 16,000 crore is available with the State. Against this, the Oversight Authority constituted under Justice AK Patnaik has sanctioned a total number of 15 projects in seven sectors estimated around Rs 10,000 crore. The major sectors include drinking water, education, health, livelihood, rural connectivity, environmental protection and pollution control, water conservation and soil and moisture conservation. The projects under Phase-II are in first stage of implantation.