New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) As the Finance Ministry has recommended states to use the funds of District Mineral Foundations (DMF) for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, non-profit organisations are divided over the move, with the Goa Foundation, opposing the decision and New Delhi-based PRAHAR urging the government to actively used the unutilized DMF funds.
The Goa Foundation in a letter to the Goa government on April 7 said that any move to use the money from DMF and Goa Iron Ore Permanent Fund would be illegal and they may result in ‘consequences’.
“Monies placed in the DMFs are, by law, only allowable to support activities that enhance the welfare and opportunities of persons directly affected by mining in mining districts. People have suffered the worst effects of mining in these areas for several years. Hence, by no stretch of the imagination or the law can the funds meant for them and their communities be used for government activity related to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the letter.
The Goa Foundation further said that there are already orders of the High Court of Bombay (at Panaji) laying down specific conditions for utilization of these DMF funds, including getting prior approval from you for any scheme or project even for mining-affected in excess of Rs 2 lakh.
On the other the hand, the state government and supporters of the move say that as mining and tourism are the only major sources of income in the state, and both the activities are currently shut, the usage of the funds becomes all the more necessary.
PRAHAR (Public Response Against Helplessness and Action for Redressal) on Sunday urged the Government to actively use unutilized District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds and accelerate relief efforts towards protection of lives and livelihood for the COVID-affected communities across states.
This call is part of the NGO’s ‘National Movement for Livelihood Resurrection and Self Employment’ in the wake of coronavirus crisis launched recently.
According to the data available on the Ministry of Mines website a sum of Rs 35,925 crore have been collected in DMF funds in total as on January 31, 2020. Around 35 per cent of the total amount — Rs 12,414 crore — has been spent so far, leaving a corpus of Rs 23,510 crore to be spent.
The NGO, however, noted that after three weeks, “negligible” progress has been made with few districts making some discretionary use of these funds.
“This is because of lack of clarity on the modalities of use of these funds for the purpose of saving lives and resurrecting livelihoods in the aftermath of the COVID outbreak,” it said.
It noted that states like Goa have already been under deep economic crisis because of the judicial interpretation leading to cancellation of mining leases in March 2018 by the Supreme Court. PRAHAR said that the cancellation of mining leases took away livelihoods of 30 per cent of the state’s population and brought three lakh mining dependents to the brink.
“The tourism industry is unlikely to see a revival for the next 9 to 12 months and with mining also on a standstill, the state will suffer immensely with a potential law and order situation that can follow,” said the PRAHAR statement.
According to the NGO Goa collected Rs 188.65 crore in DMF Fund and Rs 399 crore in Goa Iron Ore Permanent Fund till March 2018 when mining was operational and so far only Rs 4 crore of the DMF fund has been used for the welfare of people.
“At a time when the state is in its worst crisis, this corpus can act as a bail-out package. The Finance Minister’s announcement and subsequent attempt by state authorities to use these funds is facing irresponsible opposition,” it said.
Abhay Raj Mishra, National Convenor and President, PRAHAR, said: “It is important to go all out to save lives and ensure economic survival of citizens at the bottom of the social pyramid during the current crisis. We need to unlock all possible resources at this hour. These include unused corpuses such as DMF funds and keeping wheels of economic activity rolling wherever permissible.”
The statement said that, according to the Minerals Act, 40 per cent of the DMF fund can be used for aother priority areas, whereas 60 per cent should be reserved for the apriority areas. This means that while 60 per cent of the fund can be kept for communities directly working in mining activities, the remaining can be used for the wellbeing of the state.
Regarding the opposition to the move, PRAHAR in its statement has said: “Such opposition on the back of the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law (the welfare objective) should be investigated for vested interests.”
–IANS
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