Keonjhar: A sizeable chunk of the District Mineral Fund (DMF) earmarked for the welfare and development of people affected by mining activities in the district remains unutilised.

The mineral-rich district has received Rs 17,000 crore under the DMF, which was constituted to utilise the penalty collected from miners for excess mining on the improvement of social infrastructure in the mineral-bearing district.

The utilisation of the funds realised as penalties over the past three years has left much to be desired. The utilisation ratio of the allocated funds stands abysmally low with little over 10 per cent being spent for the infrastructure and development projects.

"Rs 183 crore has been utilised and the government agencies concerned have furnished utilisation certificates to corroborate the use of the funds. The DMF projects that have been implemented so far covered sectors such as irrigation, drinking water and pipe water besides hospital infrastructure development," said project director of the District Rural Development Agency Nrusingha Charan Swain.

"Several ongoing projects are now in various phases of implementation. So it would be wrong to construe that the administration was not sincere to use the DMF. Construction of number of projects is in progress. The ongoing projects that are various phases of construction are a medical college and hospital (Rs 370 crore), a Rs 180 crore-mega irrigation project that will irrigate land in 292 villages. Besides, a Rs 700 crore-project is under way to provide drinking water to each household in the district," he said.

These claims notwithstanding, the authorities are certainly behind schedule when it comes to timely implementation of the DMF. "The medical college and hospital construction has been going on for the past three years. The project work is getting delayed due to improper supervision and monitoring," said president of Anandpur Biksh Parishad Suresh Sahoo. "The government has set up an integrated project monitoring unit for the DMF's proper utilisation and is spending whopping Rs 2 crore for it. The unit had been directed to facilitate co-ordination in field level work with the district administration. But it's monitoring is left much to be desired."

DMF funds are earmarked for developing infrastructure, provide pipe water supply, build metalled roads, enhance skill development and create new job opportunities in the areas affected by mining operations.