The Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA), the authority having responsibility of rehabilitation and relocation of families residing in underground fire hit locations of Jharia coalfields faces technical glitches due to delay of its extersion.
The JRDA board seized to exist in August 2021and since then the coal ministry has not granted it an extension, despite the fact that till date only 3000 families could be rehabilitated and thousand still await relocation and rehabilitation.
The delay in extension has also affected day to day functioning of the authority as its not in position to utilize funds though it has more than Rs 300 crores in its coffer.
A senior officer of district adminiatration who also holds an ex-officio post in the organisation said that host of development projects have been delayed due to non availability of funds that need to be approves by the authority board. Constuction of a fifty bed hospital at Belgharia township where people have been relocated has been kept at abayane due to non existence of board, he said.
Both the existing deputy commissioner of Dhanbad, who happens to be ex-officio managing director of the organisation, and the former one have written to the ministry for granting extension but till date no action has been taken by ministry in this regards.