Due to halfhearted implementation of mineral funds, the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) has failed to serve the interest of people and areas affected by the mining operation of Keonjhar distrct.
The very purpose for which it was created by a notification of the Parliament in the year 2015 seems to has failed.
Although at present, there is an available amount of around Rs 3,500 crore mineral fund in Keonjhar, there is no perceivable change in life of the people.
While some times there is allegation of bureaucratic control of the DMF, in other times there is similar allegation of misutilisation of the fund.
Recently, a letter from Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to exempt mineral fund from the ambit of Income Tax has sparked a new controversy. Kendujhar Citizen
Forum president Kiran Sahu, who has been writing letters to different authorities, including the District Magistrate, from the very beginning to register the DMF as a trust so that the earmarked fund can be exempted from paying income tax said all his suggestions have been unheard of till now.
Till today, the Keonjhar DMF has paid around Rs 25 crore as income tax which could have been better utilised for the development of Keonjhar, said Sahu, further adding that instead of writing to the Finance Minister, he could have done the same by writing to the CM or to the District Magistrate who is the Chairman of DMF so that it would have much better impact and the interest of Odisha could have been served.
Sahu further alleged that the administration is not seriously interested to register the DMF as trust in the fear that DMF will go out of its control and the administration cannot exercise monopoly over the mineral fund.