By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Council, which was met on Friday under the chairmanship of Chief secretary Asit Tripathy cleared new projects worth over Rs 1700 crore under Phase-II. Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra was present in the meeting.
Projects under OMBADC have made progress with 93% utilization of its Phase-I fund.The Chief Secretary asked the Housing and Urban Development Department to prepare a shelf of safe drinking water DPRs on 24×7 basis for mining affected districts.
It was decided to create skill enhancement facility for local people in the districts of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh.
Chief Executive Officer of OMBADC Uma Nanduri said, “OMBADC Phase-I is under implementation in 691 villages spreading over 121 GPs in 29 Blocks of 8 districts namely Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Koraput, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh”.
In this phase around Rs.869 crore was allotted to the State under CAMPA funding. Nanaduri said that 29,829 housing units, 244 drinking water projects and skill development for 200 ST & SC youths had been taken up. So far, 93 per cent of the phase-I fund around Rs.828 crore has been utilized in these projects and the projects have reached final phase of completion.
Under Phase-II of OMBADC, around Rs.16000 crore is available with the State. Against this the Oversight Authority constituted under Justice Ananga Kumar 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 & pollution control, water conservation and soil & moisture conservation. The projects under Phase-II are in various stages of implementation.
In addition to these 15 projects, the Board of Directors recommended new projects for supply of 24×7 safe drinking water supply in 13 ULBs of 3 districts, development of sustainable livelihood for tribals through tribal art/craft cluster model, procurement of medical equipment for health facilities in Mayurbhnaj district, livelihood promotion through animal husbandry, fishery, horticulture and integrated watershed programs.
