Nineteen miners in dock for violation of forest laws

The Orissa government has booked cases against 19 miners in the state for violating the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and Orissa Forest Act-1972. While 12 of these miners are in Keonjhar circle, seven others belong to the Bonai circle.

The miners who are in the dock for violation of the above laws are Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), Rambahadur Thakur Ltd, Arjun Ladha Ltd, Sarada Mines Ltd, B D Patnaik Mines, M L Rungta Mines, Indrani Patnaik Ltd, Essel Mining Ltd, S N Das Mohapatra, Serajuddin & Company Ltd and Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd to name a few.

This is as per the information provided by Raghunath Mohanty, minister for industries and steel & mines in the state assembly.

Arjun Ladha Ltd was found to have illegally expanded the broken-up area of 48.77 hectares to 59.11 hectares under Balagunda Iron & Manganese mines in Keonjhar district without compliance to the conditions stipulated in the TWP (Temporary Work Permit) orders. The case is under trial by Junior Magistrate (first class), Barbil.

Similarly, the Gandhamardhan block-B iron ore mines of OMC Ltd had raised 220 million tonnes of iron ore inside the lessee area. The case is currently under trial by the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Keonjhar.

Another mine of OMC- Koira, had encroached 2.82 hectares of bad-jungle kisam land for mining purpose within the ML (mining lease) area in violation of the Forest Conservation Act. Essel Mining Industries Ltd had also encroached 1.07 hectares of bad-jungle kisam land under Bonai mining circle within the ML area, also in violation of Forest Conservation Act. Necessary prosecution has been filed in the court of the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate-Bonai. S N Das Mohapatra was illegally operating outside his lease area of Katasahi and Rudukela mines in Keonjhar district and within the lease area of Rambahadur Thakur Ltd over an area of 4.58 hectares. The State Vigilance has initiated a case against the lessee.