Social Justice

KEY POINTS

Mining-affected people excluded

·         Officials and political representatives dominate the DMF administration in all states.

·         People in mining-affected areas have also been left out from the decision-making process.

Poor planning

·         None of the DMFs have done a bottom-up planning or developed perspective plans, as required by the law.

·         The lack of planning is leading to inappropriate investments. Often, DMF funds are actually being diverted for urban projects that have nothing to do with priorities of mining-affected areas and communities.

Administrative setup

·         Absence of a proper administrative set-up is also hampering DMFs.

·         Except for a handful, no DMF has yet set up an office for planning and coordination.

Transparency and Accountability

·         Disclosure of information is a major concern as most DMFs are not putting information on investments in the public domain, which they are supposed to do by law.

·         There has been no performance evaluation or social audit, which is an essential component for people-centric schemes.

Suggestions

·         DMFs can only deliver if they are implemented in the spirit they were enacted in.

·         Focus more on bottom-up planning and proper institutional structure.

·         Serious efforts should have to be taken to include beneficiaries in decision making and monitoring process unless, it will never make right investments or be transparent and accountable.

Please Kindly review sir