Mining conclave to discuss state of auctions, DMF collection

Other issues include framing of minor mineral rules, curbing illegal mining

The Union mines ministry has convened a meeting of ministers of mineral bearing states at Jaipur in Rajasthan on Friday to discuss on various issues pertaining to development of mineral sector in the country.

The issues to be taken up at the meeting include preparedness of states for e-auction of the major mineral blocks, setting up of district mineral foundation (DMF), status of collection under National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET), framing of minor mineral rules, and curbing illegal mining.

So far, six mineral blocks have been auctioned in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh. The mineral blocks need to be prepared for putting them up on mineral auctions by every state government.

On DMF and NMET, the meeting would take stock of the status of collection of money and its utilisation by the state governments.

In case of minor minerals, the Union mines ministry has prepared draft guidelines for mining of minor minerals which was circulated to the state governments. The ministry would review the status of framing of rules by the states for grant of minor mineral concessions.

To curb incidences of illegal mining, a 'Mining Surveillance System for major minerals is being developed with the help of Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications & Geo-Informatics (BISAG), Gujarat under Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeiTY) with the use of space technology. The state governments have been asked to make available digitised lease-wise information for all major mineral leases in their state for expediting the development of MSS. The penal provisions for illegal mining cases under Section 21 have been enhanced to a maximum penalty of Rs five lakh and jail term if five years.

The meeting would also take stock of the level of adoption of IT in mineral regulation and administration by the state governments.