Rehabilitation funds not being properly spent in Odisha: Nalco

NEW DELHI: The Odisha government today came under attack from a central PSU which alleged that the funds provided by it under a mechanism for rehabilitation of people displaced by mining projects are not being properly utilized.

Chairman of state-run aluminium maker Nalco B L Bagra said he was unhappy over the way funds were being utilized by state government-appointed Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Committee (RPDC) for people affected by mining and other industrial activities.

"...we are not happy the way the funds are being utilized. Neither the people around our plants are happy nor the people who are contributing the money are happy," Bagra told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organized by Policy Development Initiative.

Bagra, who appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Bill, said his concern was more with developing a mechanism for proper utilzation of funds than anything else.

Spelling out his views on the provisions for sharing of profits and royalty on mining in the new Mines Bill, he said, "Unless a robust mechanism to ensure that the funds collected through this mechanism should be used for the purpose of the people for whose benefit it is intended, this will remain another tax without meeting target or objective."

"Sharing 26 per cent of the revenue is not a big issue. But scepticism is about the mechanism to use the fund for the purpose it is intended," he said.

He was reacting to a question about the provision of the bill under which the coal mining firms would have to contribute 26 per cent of their profits, after tax for rehabilitation of people.