Orissa issues guidelines on peripheral development fund

The Orissa government has issued new guidelines for utilization of peripheral development fund of industrial projects stipulating allocation of at least 70 per cent of the fund for periphery development activities in the villages and the gram panchayat in which the project is situated.

It prescribed that the percentage of the fund to be allocated for the periphery development in rest of the areas of the concerned block shall not exceed 20 per cent.

Similarly, not more than 10 per cent of the periphery development fund will be allocated for periphery development in rest of the areas of the concerned district.

The guideline issued by the state revenue department, however, said, the Rehabilitation & Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) will have the discretion to deviate from the above ratio in special circumstances.

According to the revised guidelines, the periphery area will not extend beyond the concerned district in which the project is located. Work will be taken up in the concerned village and gram panchayat where the project is located followed by block and revenue district.

However, the villages in which displaced families of the project are resettled shall also be included in the periphery area even if they are not situated within the concerned district. The RPDAC will specify the periphery area for each project as per these guidelines in which activities may be taken up from the periphery development fund.

The guidelines say that works taken up with the help of the periphery development fund should normally be confined to the peripheral area. However, infrastructure works may be taken up in institutions located outside the periphery area which cater to or are fed by the primary institutions situated in the periphery area or will directly benefit the villagers in the peripheral area.

Works in areas like education, drinking water, health, irrigation, agricultural extension work like horticulture, pre-school education and care, electrification, vocational education, sanitation and sewerage, communication and livelihood support may be taken up from out of the periphery area development fund.

The objective of the projects should be to improve the physical quality of life of the residents of the peripheral area. Activities undertaken from these funds should bring about a perceptible and visible improvement in the periphery area.

It is the duty of the industrial project concerned to provide all amenities to the resettlement colonies of the project and any expenditure on such works undertaken for such colonies should be an integral part of the rehabilitation & resettlement (R&R) budget of the project authorities.

Such works in resettlement colonies should normally be not treated as periphery development activities except in exceptional cases where the said work will substantially contribute to the overall development of the entire periphery area and not just the colony.