Bhubaneswar, June 19: The Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), a premier state undertaking, has offered to put its surplus funds worth Rs 5,000 crore at the disposal of the state government for infrastructure development.

The proposal has sparked off speculation about the possibility of the government utilising the money for distributing pre-poll sops.

The OMC, which had paid the government a dividend of Rs 500 crore last year, also funded the Naveen Patnaik government’s blanket scheme for the old, destitute, physically challenged and widows. The scheme cost a whopping Rs 74 crore. Earlier, the corporation had also given Rs 200 crore for Naveen’s bicycle scheme for Class X girl students.

With polls looming on the horizon, the government is likely to respond to the OMC’s proposal positively. “As the chief minister is announcing one sop after another, the government will need a lot of money. With the state budget under strain, the cash-rich corporation can come to the rescue of the government,” said a senior government official.

However, OMC chairman-cum-managing director Saswat Mishra said: “Funds worth around Rs 5,000 crore are lying idle with us. We want proper utilisation of the money. If the state government takes the money and uses it for the infrastructure development, we have no problems.”

Mishra said the government could take the money in the form of a soft loan and invest it in various projects.

The OMC has already written letters to energy, works, commerce and transport, rural development and other departments to come out with proposals to take the advantage of the funds at its disposal.

However, the opposition remains sceptical of the move. State BJP spokesperson Suresh Pujari said: “Instead of giving money to the state government, which will use it for election purposes, the corporation should utilise its funds for periphery development in its mining areas and expand its mining operations.”

The OMC chief on the other hand pointed out that OMC had a limitation to use its own funds. “We have planned to spend Rs 1000 crore in the next three to four years for the development of mining sector. But we cannot spend more than that.”

Mishra also argued that OMC being a state government undertaking there was nothing wrong in it sponsoring a government scheme.