By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, his trusted Lieutenants, 5T Secretary, V Kartikeyan Pandian and CMO Chief Advisor, R Balakrishnan, continued to spend sleepless nights with both COVID-19 death and positive tolls are on rise after the State Health and Family Welfare Department was on Thursday reported about 6 deaths including 5 from BJD Supremo Patnaik’s home district of Ganjam and 1 from Khurda. With fresh casualties, the number of deaths in hotspot districts Ganjam and Khurda surged to 67 and 15 respectively.
Meanwhile, the total number of infected mounted to 21, 099. The State also registered it’s biggest-ever single-day spike in COVID-19 infections, with 1264 including 540 in Ganjam alone, new cases in the last 24 hours. With this, the state’s total tally crossed the 21,000-mark and reached 21099.
Officials in State Information and Public Relations Department however said, on Thursday, new recoveries reported at 440 followed Cumulative Tested touched 4,21,931 while 13,749 have been recovered so far and 7,205 are active cases.
The State Government has mobilised 70% of its resources in Ganjam alone but things not turning to normalcy with ,out of Thursday’s 1264 positive cases, the southern districts, which sent 13 MLAs to State Assembly and 2 MPs to Lok Sabha, reported a huge 540 cases. Dozens over IAS, OAS and ORS officers , besides medical teams deployed at Ganjam but the nightmare continued to haunt both Lok Seva Bhawan as well as Naveen Niwas when the State Health and Family Welfare as well as Information and Public Relations Department briefing media about the new developments, sources said.
The State Government will borrow funds from Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) to mobilize more funds during the ongoing battle against COVID-19. The State has already borrowed Rs 1,000 crore from these 2 funds. Odisha government has already spent nearly Rs 1912 crore on COVID management.
Odisha DMF Funds money deposited at RBI Accounts is about to worth Rs 6,518.14 crore under till the end of March 2020. Odisha is entitled to utilise Rs 1,955 crore, which is 30% of the unutilised fund. Besides, that Rs 17,000 crore deposited at RBI account of Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) and the Compensatory Afforestation (CAMPA). The Rs 17,000 crore fund was born when the Supreme Court on August 2, 2017 levied a compensation charge on miners for violations of environmental laws.
Earlier, the Ministry had announced to allow the States to use 30% of the total Funds for COVID-19 health services under Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) in mineral bearing districts while the Pataik Government had written to Union Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahallad Joshi but the Ministry rejected Odisha’s request, sources said. As per the DMF Funds and PMKKKY fund can only be utilised in mineral bearing districts having at least 1 positive COVID-19 case.
Chief Minister Patnaik in his letter had mentioned that said Khurda, Jajpur, Cuttack and Bhadrak were adjacent to major mineral bearing districts and also needs DMF Funds. BJP MLA from Keonjhar Sadar Mohan Majhi, one of the trustees of Keonjhar DMF Trust Board, said the State Government has already taken 30 %of the fund for expenditure on healthcare to fight COVID-19. He said he would strongly oppose any further move to withdraw more amount from the corpus fund of DMF, OMBADC and CAMPA.
The Odisha Government was expecting withdraw 60% funds from District Mineral Foundation Funds of Rs 6,518.14 crore and Rs 17,000 crore deposited at RBI account of Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) and the Compensatory Afforestation (CAMPA), for COVID-19 relief and restoration works will hit hurdles.
