Mineral fund policy to fetch additional Rs 900 crore in Chhattisgarh

The state's governor said the funds generated would be used for development activities in project affected places

Mineral-rich Chhattisgarh would get an additional revenue from minerals to the tune of over Rs 900 crore annually that would be used for local area development.

“The state government had implemented the district mineral fund policy 2015 that would generate additional revenue of more than Rs 900 crore,” Governor Balramji Dass Tandon said while addressing members of Chhattisgarh's Legislative Assembly today. The month-long Budget session of the state Assembly started with the governor’s address. The session would conclude on March 31.

Tandon said the funds generated would be used in the respective district for the development activities in the project affected places. The amount would be spent through the district collector, he said, adding that Rs 190 crore was generated under the old policy and that had been distributed to the panchayats and civic bodies concerned.

Speaking on agricultural issues, he said that the state government is taking necessary initiatives to upgrade the paddy procurement and payment system. In the kharif marketing season, about 5.9 million tonnes of paddy had been procured from 1.1 million farmers, he added. Additionally, he said that the paddy procurement had cost Rs 8,429 crore to the state exchequer and maximum farmers have been paid the amount through online transaction.

Tandon said the legislator model village programme introduced in the state had also received good response. “The Swacch Bharat Abhiyan is also yielding the positive response and over 1,400 villages in the state have been declared open defecation free,” he added. In the villages, about 0.3 million individual toilets have been constructed and more than equal number of toilets is under construction, Tandon said.

Referring to the infrastructure development works in insurgency-hit areas, Tandon said that of the 1,991 km roads to be constructed in the Naxal-infested pockets, work for 1,020 km has already been completed while the remaining work is in progress. Under the chief minister village road programme, the state government had set a target to construct 1,154 roads measuring over 3,000 km.