Oversight Authority expresses satisfaction over type of project taken up under OMBADC

Bhubaneswar, Jan 2 : Oversight Authority on Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Corporation (OMBADC) under the Chairmanship of Justice AK Patnaik has expressed satisfaction over the kind of projects taken up in mineral bearing areas of the State.

Justice Patnaik said at a meeting of the Authority here recently that the authority was particularly impressed with the work done in the sectors of multilingual education for mainstreaming the tribal children, residential hostels for scheduled tribe and scheduled caste students, drinking water supply, technical education, improvement in health services, skill development  and educational development.

The Chief Executive Officer, OMBADC Uma Nanduri presented the administrative, financial and technical details of the proposed projects by various departments.

Taking a project wise scrutiny of the proposed projects, the Authority sanctioned projects of worth Rs.8906 cr for four districts namely Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur.

The authority also decided to go ahead with tendering process for completion of the projects within the scheduled time so as to avoid the possibility of cost escalation.

Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi directed the concerned implementing departments to expedite the process accordingly.

It was further decided to work out the DPR for newly proposed projects within shortest possible time. The priority areas for utilization of OMBADC fund was decided in the meeting.

As per orders of the Supreme Court, supply of piped drinking water, improvement in delivery of health services, upgradation of facilities for specialist clinical care and diagnosis, livelihood promotion, skill and technical education for livelihood, upgradation of facilities for quality education, curtailing of pollution level, improvement of connectivity infrastructure for quick delivery of health services to people were set as the priority sectors for utilization of OMBADC funds.

Projects of worth Rs. 8906 cr were sanctioned in the meeting.

The sanctioned projects included  mega pipe water supply schemes, individual household water supply schemes, upgradation of infrastrudture and quality in elementary & secondary education, development of infrastructure in the schools for ST & SC children, modernization of ITI schools, upgradation of infrastructure in helath institutions, livelihood activities through fishery activities, skill development of youths, improvement of quality in ICDS, horticultural activities, water harvesting  and recharge of ground water , improvement of water bodies, road connectivity for quick delivery of health services, installation of automatic air quality monitoring systems in four districts.

Additional Chief Secretary Forest & Environment  Raj Kumar Sharma appraised that the total mining and mineral transport in Joda and Koida circles are well below the defined limit.

 He said that for keeping pollution level  below the threshold limit, Government of Odisha on its own, has been following carrying capacity principles in matters of mining activities.

The mineral transport from Odisha in the year 2017-18 was around 102 million ton against NEERI recommendations of 129 million tons. For the year 2018-19 study conducted by NEERI has recommended transport of around 153 million ton of mineral.

Sharma assured that the actual mineral transport during 2018-19 would be kept below the recommended limit.

The Member State Pollution Control Board Debidatta Biswal stated that as the data availed through  regular automatic air quality monitoring centers installed at mining and transport points, the actual pollution level is well below the threshold limit.

The PM10 below 100 microgram per cubic meter and the level of PM2.5 is well below 60 microgram per cubic meter.

Only at one point of transport junction near Bhadrasahi chhak the pollution level occasionally goes above prescribed limit, he said.

Various techniques of reducing pollution level at this junction were worked out in the meeting.

Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy along with Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, senior officers and members of the committee participated in the discussions.