Final report on Thriveni-miners nexus in a week

A six-member committee constituted to probe into alleged violation of Rule 37 of Mineral Concession Rules-1960 is set to submit its final report on the alleged unholy nexus between miners and raising contractor Thriveni Earthmovers within a week.

"The state government has already served showcause notices on three miners- Indrani Patnaik, K J S Ahluwalia and T P Sao for violation of MC Rules. The cases of five more miners are under investigation. The committee will submit its final report to the state government within a week. Following receipt of the report, we will take action against the lessees and raising contractors who are found to violate MC Rules", a top official of steel & mines department told Business Standard.

The alleged nexus between the mine lessees and raising contractor Thriveni Earthmovers Ltd in the Joda mining circle in Koenjhar district had snowballed into a major issue with the MLAs of the Opposition Congress as well as the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) urging the Chief Minister to initiate stringent action against the miners as well as the contractor.

Two Congress legislators and six lawmakers of the ruling party had written to the Chief Minister in this connection.

These legislators had alleged that the mining mafia led by defeated MLA candidate Sanatana Mahakud in collusion with Thriveni Earthmovers had forcibly taken control of ten mines in the Joda circle using their muscle power.Meanwhile, the state government had appointed 16 chartered accountants to detect cases of alleged violations of Rule 37 of Mineral Concession Rules-1960.

These chartered accountants were appointed to conduct preliminary verification of balance sheet, audited accounts, tax audit report, IT and VAT (Value Added Tax) returns) as well as related documents of the mines.

The chartered accountants were to carry out the work assigned to them in a team with an officer of the mining department. The mining officer would be from a mining circle other than in which the mine is located.

Earlier, the state government had constituted a six-member committee to carry out an investigative study of the financial transaction of the lessees and the raising contractors.As a part of its crackdown on illegal mining activities in the state, the enforcement squad on mining had registered 2104 cases of which 1640 cases were at the district level and the remaining 464 being at the state level.