PANJIM: Against the backdrop of mining activity in the state coming to a standstill for the last 15 months, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who chaired the meeting of the re-constituted District Mineral Foundation (DMF), is focusing on using the district mineral funds for employment generation in the mining belt.
The DMF meetings for North and South Goa were held at the Secretariat. The CM asked the two committees to formulate an annual plan regarding the spending of funds under different schemes in the mining belt. He further took stock of the Rs 93 crore unutilised funds available with DMF.
DMF is a corpus contributed by mining industries depending on their exports. An amount of Rs 180 cr was collected till March 16, 2018 – when mining activities stopped.
Speaking to media persons post meeting, Sawant said both the committees headed by District Collectors will submit their annual expenditure plan within one month.
While the North committee will have BJP MLAs Pravin Zantye, Joshua D’Souza and Glenn Ticlo as its members, the South committee will have independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar along with BJP MLAs Carlose Almeida and Subhash Shirodkar as its members.
Admitting that for last four years, the fund was not utilized properly, Sawant said emphasis will be given to income generating activities in the mining belt, which would give much needed relief to the mining dependents.
“The money was spent on water supply and transportation only. This time, we will spend money on all aspects, which will include agriculture, water resources, education, health and others,” the CM said.
“We will invest in income generating activities in the mining belt,” he said, while adding that the North district committee can earmark projects worth Rs 48 crore whereas the South district committee can earmark Rs 45 crore for the year.
Besides this, emphasis will also be carrying out activities such as desilting of paddy fields among others that will push self employment opportunities as well. The State has also decided to take into confidence, Goa Mineral Foundation, a NGO representing the mine owners, before finalising the expenditure plan.
When asked when the execution of the plan would begin, Sawant said that it would take place as soon as the plans are finalised and that there would be regular follow ups as the executive committees will have to submit quarterly reports to the government.
“I would be monitoring the project and will hold monthly review meetings,” he said.
People from as many as seven talukas directly depend on mining activities for their survival. The iron ore activities in these areas came to half after Supreme Court quashed second renewals granted to 88 leases.
