Chargesheet in three out of 11 illegal mining cases so far

The vigilance department of Orissa, which has been probing into illegal mining cases since 2009, has filed chargesheet in case of three out of 11 cases being investigated so far, the state government said in a letter written to the Union ministry of mines on Monday.

In cases of irregularities reported in the mines of Ram Bahadur Thakur, Basant Das and Indrani Patnaik, the vigilance office has chargesheeted the firms and is in the process of filing chargesheets in cases registered against miners such as B D Patnaik and Mangilal Rungta.

Similarly, it is awaiting sanction for prosecution against Rungta Mines and Serajuddin and Co with regard to allegation of illegal mining and violation of forest conservation laws in three cases (two Serajuddin, one Rungta).

However, the vigilance wing is yet to investigate disproportionate asset cases against former mines and forest officials and a rule violation case filed against Radha Raman Minerals.

Meanwhile, the state government has lost its ground in cases filed against Ram Bahadur Thakur, Indrani Patnaik miners at the central mining tribunal. The government has moved the state High Court against Ram Bahadur Thakur and is planning to do the same in Indrani Patnaik case.

Recently, the Supreme court of India struck down a Orissa government order to cancel renewal of mining lease for Arjun Ladha, a miner in Keonjhar district, citing that the forest laws came much later than mining lease grant and hence, the miner cannot be considered guilty of violating forest laws. A red-faced Orissa government now plans to go along with the High Court order, which favours the miner.

The state government has taken pro-active steps to avoid illegal mining and has restricted the operation of 470 mines out of a total of 600 mines on various grounds since 2009. In February, it ordered Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) to stop mining at Bolani iron ore mine for non-availability of forest clearances. It has also taken several measures to stop illegal transportation of minerals by issuing truck registration and transport permit online, making mandatory filling of monthly mining activity on its website and banning trader-to-trader sale of minerals.