Chhattisgarh to reserve 50% ore for local units

Chhattisgarh government is mooting to go Orissa way and ask the mining companies to reserve half of its production for the local units.

In Orissa, it was the private iron ore miners who had come under the orbit of recent government order asking to give 50 per cent steel making raw material to the local units. In Chhattisgarh, it will be the state-run National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to come under the scanner.

The state government however started the initiative in this regard as a high level meeting was convened on Monday to discuss the issue. The meeting was chaired by Industry Minister Rajesh Munat and was attended by top bureaucrats of the government’s departments concerned. NMDC’s Director (technical) N K Nanda and Director (commercial) S K Das represented the company.

“The NMDC officials have been hinted that the Chhattisgarh government intents to follow the practice adopted by the other states and reserve 50 per cent of the iron ore produced from state’s mines for the local industries,” a top official of the state government told Business Standard. The issue was discussed during the meeting that was attended by local industrialists also.

The officials of NMDC could not be contacted for the version. An industrialist present at the meeting disclosed that NMDC officials expressed their reservations over providing 50 per cent iron ore to the local industries. The officials cited that the company had long-term agreement and hence it could not spare such a huge quantity for the state.

“The minister clearly told the NMDC officials to seriously consider the demand or otherwise government will be forced to issue the notification (as Orissa government did) to make it mandatory for the miners in the state to reserve half of its production for the local units,” the industrialist said.

The NMDC, country’s largest iron ore exporter and producer, has major mining operations in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. The company produces about 22 Million Tonnes (MT) of iron ore in Dantewada that is about 75 per cent of NMDC’s total iron ore production.

The company had been asked to cut short the price of iron ore for the local units and provide the raw material at a reasonable rate. The NMDC officials said the broad meeting was slated to be held on January 2 in which the issue would be taken up.

The NMDC had also been asked to ensure supply of 200,000 tonnes of additional iron ore for the local industrialists by January 15. The company had been providing 3 MT of iron ore to the local units.