Centre to press states on digital mapping of mining leases

The Centre is mulling introduction of a grading system for good governance of mineral-bearing areas to contain the burgeoning of illegal mining. States would have to undertake massive satellite and digital mapping of lease mining boundaries.

This was the outcome of a meeting convened by the Ministry of Mines with 18 states on February 22. Planning Commission member Arun Meira and secretary, Sudha Pillai, attended.

A senior official of the ministry, on condition of anonymity, told Business Standard: “States need to do more to use satellite imagery sourced from remote sensing organisations to curb illegal mining. States will need to develop reliable mechanisms for collection and monitoring of data regarding prices of various minerals. States will (also) be asked to indicate the chances of illegal mining in certain minerals after taking into account the price trend.”

According the ministry’s data, released in December last year, cases of illegal mining of major or minor minerals detected by state governments between 2006 and June 2009 include Andhra Pradesh 35,411, Chhattisgarh 6,923, Goa 487, Gujarat 23,240, Haryana 3,141, Himachal Pradesh 1,356, Jharkhand 938, Karnataka 11,896, Kerala 7,685, Madhya Pradesh 16,068, Maharashtra 17,900, Orissa 2,363, Punjab 342, Rajasthan 7,932, Tamil Nadu 5,074, Uttarakhand 191 and West Bengal 872.

Recently, the Centre asked Gujarat to step up efforts to avoid illegal excavation of sand, in large demand from neighbouring Maharashtra, which has had a huge shortage due to changes made by the latter’s government in the auctioning system.

Currently, sand is available at Rs 15,000 per tonne in Maharashtra and a large number of builders and developers have organised sand supply from neighbouring Gujarat.

The official said the Centre had already started the process to introduce legislative changes in terms of the National Mineral Policy, 2008, which enunciates that the states will be assisted to overcome the problem of illegal mining through operational and financial linkages with the Indian Bureau of Mines.

States have been asked to share their plans on the development of a mechanism for integrated monitoring of information on movement of trucks/vehicles from mining areas to ports, markets and manufacturing units which use mineral ores. This information would be correlated with production data to assess whether or not there was a spurt in mining activity.