Multi-crore mining scam

With the next hearing of the Supreme Court of India on illegal mining in Orissa scheduled to be held later this month, the state government has prepared itself for the same.

The state steel and mines department has already filed its response to the interim report of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court in connection with a case relating to illegal mining operations in the state.

“The Supreme Court hearing on illegal mining will be held later this month. We have already filed the response to the interim report of the CEC wherein we have accepted most of the committee's recommendations and incorporated minor changes”, an official source told Business Standard.

It may be noted that the CEC submitted its interim report to the Supreme Court on April 26, 2010 with a set of recommendations pertaining to check illegal mining activities in Orissa. On May 8 this year, the green bench of the Supreme Court had directed the Orissa government to implement the recommendations of the CEC, which are acceptable to it, immediately.

At the same time, the Court had expressed happiness over the willingness and readiness of the state government in accepting the recommendations. The direction of the court followed the submission made by the Orissa government that the CEC recommendations in general are acceptable to it.

The court had allowed six weeks to the state for filing its detailed response after hearing the matter.

In its 85-page interim report, the CEC had pointed out that there was rampant illegal mining in Orissa.

The CEC had inferred that illegal mining was going on for a long time in violation of the forest conservation act, air and water act and various norms of environmental clearance.

The CEC had highlighted these issues in its interim report submitted to the Apex court. The findings of the CEC are based on the submissions made by the complainant and the Orissa government in the matter. The CEC report also mentioned that the production level in many mines was above the quantity approved in the mining plan (MP).

Besides, a large number of mines remained operational for long period of time, even after the expiry of the mining leases due to the delay in taking decisions on renewal applications filed by the lease holders.

In large number of cases, the forest areas approved under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) were lesser than the forest areas included in the approved mining plan.

Lack of co-ordination between steel and mines department and forest department resulted in inadequate enforcement, the report pointed out.

Stating that the deemed extension clauses are primarily meant for contingency situation to ensure that the mining operations doesn’t come to an abrupt halt, it said, because of delay in taking decisions on renewal applications, this provision should not be availed indefinitely.

Since continuing mining over a long period without renewal of mining lease becomes a potential source of irregularity, it is desirable that it should be decided in a time bound manner, the report observed.