Minister Anand Singh in a review meeting at Ballari said “There is no need for the district administration to request money from the government to deal with the pandemic because the district has a significant amount of District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds. We’ll use the DMF funds to ramp up our pandemic preparedness efforts. Our first goal is to save people’s lives.”
“We will positively take the suggestions from all the people’s representatives for controlling the pandemic and incorporate them in our plans,” he added.
The administration resolved to use the DMF money, which was accumulated from the contributions of the mining companies and originally intended for taking up development and rehabilitation activities in mining-affected areas, for COVID-19 containment activities including the expansion of healthcare facilities in the district.
Mr. Singh said that the administration was already making arrangements to deal with the third wave of the pandemic by improving medical facilities not only at the district headquarters but also at the taluk centers.
