Panaji (Goa): After much delay, the State government today finally constituted District Level Mineral Foundation (DMF) committees for North and South Goa, which will work towards sanctioning projects for the welfare of the people affected with iron ore mining.

The North district committee will be chaired by Subhash Malik from Bicholim, while its members will include Rajan Kadkade (Bicholim), Uday Bhate (Bicholim), and Vinod Shinde (Honda Sattari). Director Mines Prasanna Acharya is the member secretary of both the committees.

BJP Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral is the chairman of  South Goa committee, while Jeetendra Naik (Sacorda, Ramakant Gaonkar ( Kirlapal) and Satyavan Gaonkar (Sanguem) are its members.

The DMF was introduced after the Centre amended the MMDR (Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation) Act in 2015, as per which a 30 percent of the amount equivalent to the royalty payment is deposited for the welfare of the people and for inter-generational equity.

State government notified the Goa District Mineral Foundation Rules 2016 in January, last year.

An amount of Rs 400 crores is so far deposited in the North and South Goa DMF.