Bhubaneswar, Feb 7: The Odisha government has asked all mineral bearing districts to create District Mineral Fund (DMF) by March this year.
State’s Mines minister Prafulla Mallick told reporters here Saturday that the Fund will take care of developmental activities in mineral bearing districts.
He said that all district collectors have been directed to create DMF account by March and start allocation of funds for various developmental activities in the affected areas from April.
The minister informed that existing mining lease holders would be required to pay 30% of the total royalty to DMFs, which will be set aside for various developmental activities in the affected areas of districts.
Meanwhile, State government has asked those have purchased tender documents to participate in the bidding for mines to submit their bidding report by February 10. Notably, Ghoraburahani-Sagasahi east iron ore block in Sundergarh district and Garumura Limestone deposit in Nuapara district have been put for auction and the last date of purchasing bidding documents ended on Friday. According to officials, Central PSU MSTC Ltd has not yet informed us about the number of documents sold till date.
The technical evaluation will be done in association with SBI Caps, which has been engaged as the transaction advisor for conducting mineral auctions. The official stated the technical committee will analyse the documents on February 11 and by 25th of this month the names of eligible bidders will be declared. The State government has decided to complete the auction of both the mines by March end.
Ghoraburanhani-Sagasahi East iron ore block is of 2.435 sq km having 116.16 million tonne reserve of iron ore.
