Committee to look into arbitrary pricing of ore transport

In a bid to rein in the arbitrary pricing of ore transport in the mineral rich areas of Orissa, the state government has decided to constitute a committee to look into the issue. The committee will consist of officials of the departments of commerce & transport and mining as well as the district superintendents of police.

"It has been decided to form a committee to look into the cases of arbitrary pricing of mineral ore transport. We discussed on the issue of transport organizations operating in the mines belt and forming cartels to jack up prices. Another meeting will be held in this connection next month”, Anup Pattnaik, director general (vigilance) told reporters after emerging out of a high-level meeting chaired by state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik said, “As part of our efforts to curb transport of illegally mined ore, we have decided to e-transit passes and strengthen coordination between the departments of transport and mining. Task forces have been constituted at the state and district level to curb illegal mining activities. We are focusing on system improvement and efforts are also being made to seize the illegally mined minerals which have been dumped at the mine areas”.

The state government has also decided to set up a Project Management Unit (PMU) within the state steel & mines department. Under this project, the department, among other things will maintain online records of all the lesses whose mines are currently operational in the state.

The PMU is set to be operational within a couple of months. The state agencies that will play a key role in the implementation of the unit are Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) and Orissa Remote Sensing Applications Centre (ORSAC).

Idcol Software has been assigned the responsibility to develop software for the project. The project involves a cost of Rs 3.5 crore to be spent over 12 months.

Meanwhile, the steel & mines department has already prepared a detailed database of all the 125 working mines including date of grant of Prospecting License (PL), Mining License (ML), forest clearance, surface right and production status. The information will be posted on the website of the department very soon.

The department has also connected all the 14 mining circle offices with each other and this has been achieved through the State Wide Area Network (SWAN).

It has been decided to modernize 12 check gates at the different mining areas which is expected to be done within 12 months.

Initially, 4-5 check gates in locations like Joda and Paradip will be modernized within two months. These check gates would be connected with the mining directorate offices.