Meeting on regulation of illegal mining on Thursday

The Union government has convened a meeting on May 20 on regulation of illegal mining activities in Orissa.

The co-ordination between different ministries of the Government of India (GoI) and the state government is expected to come up for discussion in the meeting to be chaired by the Union cabinet secretary.

The state government would seek strengthening the regulatory system to curb illegal transportation of minerals through the railway network, streamlining the transportation of minerals through ports and augmenting the manpower of Indian Burau of Mines (IBM) to enable it to effectively discharge its functions. Orissa chief secretary, Tarunkanti Mishra along with the secretaries in the steel and mines, forest and environment and home department would attend the meeting.

Sources said, the state government would apprise the cabinet secretary about various steps taken by the government to check illegal mining and transportation of minerals in the state. Though the railways have agreed to take some interim measures to check illegal transportation of minerals, the state would seek making these measures permanent.

Besides, the port authorities would be urged to undertake customs revenue verifications to check illegal shipment of minerals through ports. It may be noted, the state government has already constituted a committee headed by the director of mines (group leader) to monitor the verification of records of all the mining leases (ML) or renewal mining leases (RML). The committee is likely to submit its report in next week.