Jajpur: Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) has funded 20 mega projects in six districts in the state. However, those have failed to provide drinking water to the residents in Angul, Mayurbhanj, Koraput, Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Jajpur.
According to a source, the mega projects are still underway since 2018, the constructions of which were started in phases. A total of Rs 4,423.37 crore was sanctioned for the purpose and funds to the tune of Rs 3,100.59 crore were provided by January 31 this year. Out of the provided funds, Rs 2,691.38 crore (coming to nearly 87 per cent) have already been spent in the 20 mega projects, the source added.
Allegedly, contracts for the construction were awarded to non-Odisha based firms namely Nagarjun Construction Company (NCC), Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Limited, Voltas and Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) and little progress has been made.
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It is pertinent to mention, Supreme Court had earlier ordered the state government in 2017 to collect penalties to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore from the leaseholders who had conducted illegal mining in these six districts. OMBADC was formed with the fund for development.
It was then decided to spend the available funds with OMBADC in seven different sectors for development of the mineral bearing areas. Those sectors include drinking water supply, education (training and skill development), healthcare (including Anganwadi centres), lives and livelihoods, rural connectivity, environmental safety and pollution control, water conservation and recharging of the groundwater. The apex court had also instructed that all expenses must have requisite approval from the Board of Directors and oversight authorities.
Iron and total coliform (TC) as well as faecal coliform (FC) levels in the groundwater in mineral bearing areas of the six districts are much more than approved by the government and hence are not usable. This was confirmed after a testing of groundwater samples collected by Odisha State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) from Kaliapani, TISCO locality, Saruabila and Kamardha areas in Jajpur in 2018.
It is said that, hundreds of residents in these six districts suffer from kidney-related ailments and, even at times, die in the process.
Recently, the Engineer-in-Chief of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) has issued a circular to executive engineers concerned instructing them to expedite the 20 mega drinking water projects.
PNN