🎯 Schemes & WelfareMAINS · GS2.10 · GS2.12

Eleven years on, 62% of projects are done but only 45% of the money

The PMKKKY backgrounder, published on the scheme's eleventh anniversary, prints its own project table. Subtract completed and ongoing works from sanctioned and Rs 29,453 crore is unaccounted for.

What happened

The PMKKKY backgrounder was published on 17 September 2026, the eleventh anniversary of the scheme's launch on 17 September 2015.
District Mineral Foundations, created by the 2015 amendment to the MMDR Act, 1957, are now set up in 656 districts across 23 States.
Contribution is 10 per cent of royalty for leases granted on or after 12.01.2015 and 30 per cent for leases granted before it; at least 70 per cent of spending must go to high-priority sectors.
As on July 2026: 4,70,020 projects sanctioned at Rs 1,09,938 crore; 2,92,156 completed at Rs 49,973 crore; 78,809 ongoing with Rs 30,512 crore committed.
By subtraction, 99,055 projects and Rs 29,453 crore are sanctioned but appear in neither the completed nor the under-execution row.

For Prelims

PMKKKY: launched 17 September 2015, implemented by DMFs using funds accruing to them under the MMDR Act; revised guidelines issued January 2024.
District Mineral Foundation: a non-profit trust in every mining-affected district, introduced by the 2015 amendment to the MMDR Act, 1957, operating under State Government jurisdiction.
The two royalty rates: 10 per cent for leases granted on or after 12.01.2015; 30 per cent for those granted before - the older lease pays three times more.
70:30 split: at least 70 per cent to high-priority sectors (drinking water, environment, health, education, women and children, skills, sanitation, agriculture); up to 30 per cent to other priority sectors.
Coverage: DMFs in 656 districts across 23 States, each State framing its own DMF rules.
Tribal safeguards: State rules must follow the constitutional provisions for Scheduled and Tribal Areas, PESA 1996 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Progress, July 2026: 4,70,020 sanctioned / 2,92,156 completed / 78,809 ongoing - and 99,055 in neither closing category.
Average project size: completed works average about Rs 17.1 lakh; works under execution average about Rs 38.7 lakh, roughly 2.3 times larger.

For UPSC: The cleanest available example of a resource-rent transfer to the communities that bear extraction costs. Use it on mineral governance and benefit sharing, on fiscal devolution below the state level, and as a case in which a scheme's own published table is the evidence for questioning its delivery.

What it is NOT: The backgrounder gives no figure for total DMF collections, so the Rs 1,09,938 crore sanctioned cannot be set against what was actually received, and no year-wise series is published. It does not report state-wise or district-wise utilisation, does not say how the 99,055 residual projects are classified, and offers no compliance data at all on the 70:30 sectoral split - the one rule most likely to be breached in favour of physical infrastructure.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS2.10 · GS2.12 · Linkage L2

Anchor

PMKKKY answers a genuine question of justice: minerals belong to the nation, but subsidence, dust and displacement belong to a district. Eleven years of a 10 to 30 per cent royalty levy have produced a published ledger, and the useful exercise is to read that ledger rather than the paragraph above it.

Substantiation (data)

DMFs operate in 656 districts across 23 States. As on July 2026, 4,70,020 projects worth Rs 1,09,938 crore stand sanctioned, 2,92,156 worth Rs 49,973 crore are complete, and 78,809 with Rs 30,512 crore committed are under execution. Completion is 62 per cent by project count but only 45 per cent by value.

Problematisation

The rows do not add up. Subtract completed and ongoing from sanctioned and 99,055 projects and Rs 29,453 crore remain - 21 per cent of the works and 27 per cent of the money in no stated stage. The table is the scheme's own, which is what makes the gap usable rather than speculative.

Comparison

Completion by count outruns completion by value because completed works average about Rs 17.1 lakh while works still under execution average about Rs 38.7 lakh. The easy, small projects close first and the large ones accumulate, which is the ordinary signature of a programme reporting momentum from its cheapest half.

Counterpoint

The design deserves credit that the delivery may not. A 30 per cent levy on pre-2015 leases ties the largest contribution to the oldest and most damaged mining areas, and the mandatory floor of 70 per cent on drinking water, health, education and livelihoods is a real constraint on diverting the money into roads and buildings.

Position

Because DMFs sit under State jurisdiction and are chaired in practice by district administrations, PMKKKY is fiscal devolution below the state without a matching accountability tier. PESA and the Forest Rights Act are named as safeguards, but the backgrounder publishes no evidence that gram sabhas in Scheduled Areas set these priorities.

Deploys into: Mineral resource governance and benefit sharing · Fiscal devolution below the state level · Tribal welfare and PESA implementation · Scheme evaluation and utilisation gaps

PIB Backgrounder · 2026-09-17 · PRID 2311538 · PIB source ↗