Odisha to move higher court on mining penalty issue

The state government plans to move higher court against the stay order pronounced by Revision Authority of the Union mines ministry, over notices on miners to pay the cost of excess minerals raised by them.

A total of 35 miners had gone to the Revision Authority against the notice of Odisha government, issued in November 2012. The Authority has imposed stay order in case of four miners -PTA Ltd, Essel Mining, GSI Ltd and Ferro Alloy Corp (FACOR).

"The state government is taking steps to appeal against those orders in higher court," said Rajnikant Singh, state steel and mines minister in a reply filed in the state assembly.

The Odisha government last year had sent notices to 103 miners accused of raising iron ore and manganese in excess of permissible amount and demanded about Rs 67,900 crore fines from them. The miners included Tata Steel, Aditya Birla group firm Essel Mining and state-run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).

These miners had overshot the prescribed limit put in their mining plan approved by Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) during 2006 to 2010.

The government justified its belated action saying that as IBM did not take cognizance of the plea of Odisha to book the errant miners, it finally came up with this decision after receiving report from Auditor General on why the miners should not be asked to repay the money.

The IBM had brushed off allegations saying that the state government had enough authority to curb excess mining by restricting issue of transit passes for trucks carrying illegally mined ores.

Even a year after the notice, the state government is yet to recover a single penny.

Some miners have also questioned the basis of arriving at prices of iron ore in the demand notice slapped by state government, citing variable nature of the rate of the steelmaking raw material in past 10 years.