Home dept cell to check illegal mining

A cell will be created within the state home department to check illegal mining. The cell that is expected to be constituted within a month, will be chaired by the home secretary with top officials of steel & mines department as members.

"The home department will work out the modalities of the cell in 7-10 days. The cell to be formed in a month, will check illegalities in transport of ore. The cell is planned within the home department so that police personnel can be involved in checking illegal mining activities”, said mines director Deepak Mohanty.

The decision to form the cell was taken after a meeting of the state task force on mining chaired by chief secretary B K Patnaik.

The mining enforcement squads at the state and district levels will carry out  inspections of all working mines. It has been decided to conduct at least four inspections in a month.

Mohanty said preliminary discussions on formation of a cell to check illegal mining were held at the inter state coordination committee of Odisha and Jharkhand.

The next meeting of the inter-state committee is likely to be held in Jharkhand towards the end of this month.