It is being observed that funds available under the provisions of laws for welfare of working class and marginalized sections largely remain unspent by the State Government. This delay in decision making and slow spending of welfare funds is violation of rights and entitlements of the poor under provision of laws. The casual attitude of the Government over spending of funds has affected adversely the development.
In this context, the State Construction Workers Welfare Fund under the provisions of The Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996, the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Trust fund under the provisions of Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Amendment Act 2015 and the compensatory afforestation fund under the provisions of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2015 and the Forest Conservation Act 1980, are a few examples.
These funds are primarily collected as cess, royalty and cost of compensation from builders, construction companies, mining firms and other such establishments and corporations etc to spend for the welfare of construction workers, mining affected people in mining areas, and forest dwellers of the State. But various reports and study revealed that these funds are lying idle due ineffective planning.
In a recent Supreme Court hearing on a PIl on construction workers, it is observed that till October 2016 a total amount of Rs 28,455 crore has been collected, but only 21 per cent of the funds have been spent and over Rs 22,000 crore remains unspent as majority of States, barring Kerala which has spent 90 per cent of the fund, have not even spent 20 per cent.
In case of Odisha, it is found that the welfare funds around Rs 1,200 crore remains idle and not being spent in spite of demands by the trade unions. There are many eligible workers who are not being registered due to apathetic attitude of the labour officials who are intentionally delaying the process with official huddles. The construction workers living in urban slums and rural areas are deprived of basic minimum for life such as homestead land, housing, drinking water, toilet, sanitary facilities and electricity for a dignified living. It is expected that these basic human necessities of life must not be delayed simply because of Government indifference while huge funds are available to spend on it.
The condition of construction workers in the State has not improved to a standard and they lag behind in all aspects of human development indicator. The children of construction workers are not able to get quality education and many of them drop out due to lack of financial support. The so-called skill development training for workers is largely misused and far from the target. This denial of rights is a serious injustice on the part of the Government against the working population of the State.
The District Mineral Foundation fund collected from mining companies has the same situation. It is revealed from the Ministry of Mines that till February, 2017 from all over the country about Rs 6,000 crore has been collected from mining companies where three major mineral bearing States, such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have contributed about one-third of the total amount but these amounts are remain unspent, especially in States having major minerals and largely inhabited by STs in the mines areas. In cases of Odisha, it is found that though it has collected around Rs 2,000 crore in 2016-2017 under DMF, it has been very indolent in spending the amount. The purpose of this fund is to spend for welfare of the mining affected people and the development of mining affected areas, focusing on welfare of the STs and other marginalized sections who are largely affected due to mining operation in the area. It is also said that the dedicated amount has to be spent on basic amenities such as drinking water, healthcare, education, skill development, livelihood and employment generation of the affected people, but unfortunately it is not followed.
The local affected people are not being consulted over the use of the fund and its utilization is not been shared in transparent manner. The management of the fund is under the monopoly of ruling party and district level officials without involvement of the representatives of the affected people. The districts of Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Jharasuguda,Angul, Koraput and Jajpur having mining operation for a long time with large population of STs still remain backward in all respects of human development due to negligence of the Government.
There have been cases of malnutrition death, lack of drinking water, pollution and livelihood problems in these areas. The people from these areas are hugely displaced due to mining and other activities. The cases of distress migration from these areas are very often getting reported in media.
The district of Jajpur has chrome mining in Sukinda chrome valley though it has been contributing to the national growth in many ways but the condition of the poor people in the valley has not been improved. The water quality of the area has gone down with poisonous substances in the water as there is no proper water treatment plant.
The poisonous water flows to the nearby water streams without any treatment. The valley is home to the particularly vulnerable tribal groups such as Juanga and Mankidia and their socio –economic condition has not improved. So it is expected that the funds under the DMF must be spent on the development of the locals who deserve the most and are worst affected by mining for a long time. The DMF has provision that 60 per cent of the fund must be spent on drinking water, but it is fact that all mining areas have serious drinking water crisis and water sources are polluted due to mining operation. The drinking water issues must be addressed.
Odisha along with other forest bearing States is one the major beneficiaries of compensatory afforestation fund which comes around Rs 6,000 crore per year. The compensatory afforestation fund is meant for the development forest resources which have a direct bearing on STs because most the mining operation in Odisha are in the areas having forest and ST population. Therefore, the spending of this fund will bring direct benefit to the forest dwellers and people living in forest and forest fringe villages. It will contribute to build the lost ecosystem through forest regeneration and activities of plantation and other forest development work. This will generate employment for the forest dwellers as well.
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