Odisha to submit report to Shah panel in 2-3 days

The Odisha government is all set to submit its report on mining beyond leasehold area to the M B Shah Commission of enquiry in two to three days following completion of field verification.

While the field survey at various sites in iron ore rich Keonjhar district has found some old and abandoned pits, no major irregularities have been detected.

"The report (on mining beyond leasehold area) is ready and we are going to submit it to the Shah panel in 2-3 days. No fresh mining operations have been found during field inspection. The survey has only found the presence of old and abandoned pits and in many areas, vegetation was observed. The field verification was carried out by members of the state level enforcement squad, deputy directors of mines, mining officers and forest officials”, said mines director Deepak Mohanty.

As per the instructions of the Shah commission, the state government had constituted five teams- one each for three mining circles in Keonjhar district and two mining circles in Sundergarh district. Each of the teams consisted of two members each from the departments of revenue, forest and steel & mines. These committees were headed by a scientist from Odisha Space Application Centre (ORSAC).

These five teams were supervised by two district level committees headed by the collectors of Sundergarh and Keonjhar districts. Moreover, a state level committee was formed under D Biswal, additional secretary (forest & environment). The state level committee had representatives from Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) and the Shah Commission. The committee 's responsibility was to ascertain if a mine owner undertook mining beyond lease area.

During the recent hearing of the probe panel in Odisha in March, mine owners also pointed out discrepancies in mapping of lease boundaries. The miners held that the panel members superimposed Google images with the revenue map to determine lease area encroachment, which they claimed was not authentic. Similarly, the differential global positioning system (DGPS) map prepared by the state government agency ORSAC was also not up to the mark, the miners had argued.

The lesses had demanded pillar-to-pillar survey of their mining leases instead of satellite images to get accurate information regarding encroachment.

The commission had thereafter called for conduct of a fresh survey miners agreed to pay Rs four lakh per sq km to conduct the physical survey in their area.