CEC against renewal of Essel Mining's Kasia, Jilling Langalota mines

Cites massive illegal mining and other serious irregularities found in both the leases

The Supreme Court appointed central empowered committee (CEC) has recommended non-renewal of Kasia and Jilling Langalota mines held by Aditya Birla Group owned Essel Mining & Industries Ltd.

The panel has opined that the leases should not be renewed, citing massive illegal mining and other serious irregularities found in both the leases. The CEC on last Friday submitted its report to the Supreme Court on illegal mining in Odisha.

"In view of the massive illegal mining and other serious illegality/irregularity found in respect of both the leases, the Supreme Court may consider directing the state government not to consider grant of approval under Section 8 (3) of the MMDR (Mines & Minerals- Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 for the second renewal of the mining leases. Instead, both the leases may be directed to be assigned through transparent competitive bidding process and 40 per cent of the amount so received may be directed to be transferred to the SPV (special purpose vehicle). The balance 60 per cent may, as revenue of the state government, be deposited in the Consolidated Fund", the CEC report stated.

In respect of Jilling Langalota iron ore and manganese mines, the report says that Essel Mining extracted 28.63 million tonne of iron ore valued at Rs 13,898.20 crore from the forest land without approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Out of this, 6.77 million tonne of ore was stated to be illegally excavated during 1985-98, 5.43 million tonne from November 2002 to February 2005 and 1.64 million tonne from August 2005 to August 2009.

Other violations noted include illegal mining over 9.49 ha of DLC (district level committee) forest land at Jajanga village, unauthorised over burden dump over 1.2 ha adjacent to the manganese side and unauthorised breaking of 0.34 ha of reserve forest in the safety zone.

Similarly, in case of Kasia iron ore and dolomite mines, Essel continued mining operations between 2005 and 2008, from June 2009 to September 2009 and also from December 2009 to November 2010 in violation of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

The state forest department has assessed the value of the iron ore illegally mined at Rs 3101.04 crore. The department had filed offence report dated December 5, 2013 under the Odisha Forest Act, 1972 against Essel Mining for this illegality in the court of the JMFC (junior magistrate first class), Barbil.