New mines bill; Pranab-led panel to meet on July 22

The high-level panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to sort out the inter- ministerial differences over the proposed mining legislation, is scheduled to meet on July 22, a top Mines Ministry official said today.

"The Group of Ministers on the proposed legislation will meet on July 22," Mines Secretary Santha Sheela Nair told reporters.

Last month, the government had formed a 10-member Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Mukherjee to resolve certain issues among different ministries in the proposed mining Act.

Besides Mukherjee, the GoM includes Home Minister P Chidambaram, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Mines Minister BK Handique, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.

The Mines Ministry has already sent the proposed Bill to the GoM, which will consider many issues including conservation of minerals, powers of granting mining leases, reservation of mineral-bearing areas for PSUs among others.

"After the GoM's deliberations, the bill will be sent to the Cabinet for its approval and then the Parliament," Nair said.

Differences between Steel and Mining ministries among the various inter-ministerial issues is likely to figure in discussions, especially since both are at loggerheads over exports of iron ore.

Virbhadra Singh recently wrote to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to restrict such shipments and increase the domestic availability of iron ore, which was opposed by the Mines ministry.

The domestic output of iron ore is over 200 million tonne, half of which is exported.

The Law Ministry, which vetted the proposed legislation, has stressed on the need of conserving such minerals and even pitched a name for the new act as "Mines and Minerals Conservation, Development Regulation Act." However, the Mines Ministry has expressed its reservations to such a view.

The Law Ministry had also referred to a recent Supreme Court ruling on the gas dispute between Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group of Industries and Anil Ambani's Reliance ADA Group where it held the Centre had sovereign authority over the natural resources.

The Mines Ministry is, however, of the opinion that the Law Ministry has made "reference to the case but has not made any specific suggestions," a Mines Ministry official said, adding the case concerned talks about off-shore minerals for which there is a separate act.