The government should actively use unutilised Rs 23,510 crore district mineral foundation funds towards protecting lives and livelihood of people impacted due to coronavirus pandemic, a delhi-based NGO said on Sunday.
The NGO called PRAHAR (Public Response Against Helplessness and Action for Redressal) has urged the government to use the DMF funds mandated to be used under the Centre's scheme for mining-affected people for a bigger cause.
The DMF has been created in each district under the provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Amendment Act, 2015 and falls under the purview of the Ministry of Mines.
DMFs are funded by statutory contributions from holders of mining leases.
Meanwhile, this call by the NGO is part of its NGO's 'National Movement for Livelihood Resurrection and Self Employment' in the wake of COVID 19 crisis.
According to data available on the Ministry of Mines website, a sum of Rs 35,925 crore has been collected in DMF funds as on January 31, 2020 out of which only 35 per cent or Rs 12,414 crore has been spent so far, leaving behind a corpus of Rs 23,510 crore to be spent, the statement said.
The central government has already issued guidelines to allow state governments to utilise up to 30 per cent of the balance fund available with DMF to combat COVID-19.
However, after three weeks only 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-19 outbreak, the statement 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," PRAHAR National Convenor and President Abhay Raj Mishra said.
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