Mesco denies Rule-37 violation
Mideast Integrated Steels Limited (Mesco) has denied allegations of violation of Rule-37 under Mineral Concession Rules-1960 at a time when the state government is gearing up to investigate five more lessees after holding eight miners including Mesco guilty of violating the norm.
Clearing the air on the violation, Mesco has said the state government has not been able to substantiate any wrongdoing by the company in terms of Rule-37 violation at the Roida mines-Barbil.
"We have never at any point of time even considered giving the mine to any other party for running, management, sales, ownership control and finance. All the documents to that effect are with the state government and they have done the open research but have not been able to produce any violation of Rule-37 under Mineral Concession Rules -1960. We have not been investigated, served notice or any other communication to that effect. Moreover, all the documents asked by the state government have been submitted to them well before the Shah Commission's visit”, said J K Singh, chairman, Mesco.
Mesco said, it had purchased the mine from K N Ram & Sons in 1996. While high grade ore from the standalone mine was used in Mesco's plant, the low grade was being sold in the market.Mesco along with seven other lessees- Indrani Patnaik, KJS Ahluwalia, R P Sao, Sarada Mines (Barbil), Aryan Mines (Koira), Mala Ray mines (Keonjhar) and Kabita Agrawal (Koira) were found to violate Rule-37 after investigation by the steel & mines department.