Mines ministry bats for swift disposal of pending mining lease cases

Worried over the backlog of cases on execution of mining leases (ML), the Union mines ministry has instructed mineral bearing states to process such cases expeditiously.

There are 317 cases across 12 mineral rich states pending for disposal. Such cases have been saved under Section 10 A(2)(c) of Mines and Minerals Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act, 2015. If these ML applications are not processed before January 11 next year, they would automatically lapse.

In a letter to secretaries (mining) of the states, Union mines secretary Balwinder Kumar said swift processing of these ML applications is important since it would not only impact the mining industry but also have a bearing on the downstream and allied sectors. There is also the possibility of litigations as a fall out of lapsing of the ML applications.

Out of 317 cases, 69 cases involve pending forest clearance either at the level of the state government or the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC). Also, there are an equal number of cases with pending environment clearance.

This apart, there are 95 cases where action is pending with the state government, mostly with the department of mines and some with the revenue department and the state pollution control boards. Further, there are 97 cases where the project proponents have not taken action to process their clearances.

The mines ministry has suggested close monitoring of such cases at the level of principal secretaries/secretaries (mining). Review meetings can be held once in a fortnight where the concerned officials can be sensitised on the need to expedite these cases.