Orissa forms committee to crackdown on lessee-contractor nexus

In a bid to rein in the alleged unholy nexus between the lessees and the mining contractors, the state steel & mines department has constituted a six-member committee to carry out an investigative study of the financial transaction of the lessees and the raising contractors.

The committee will check if there is any prima facie violation of Section 37 of Mineral Concession Rules-1960.

The members of the committee include P C Patra, deputy director of mines-Bhubaneswar, U N Nayak, finance consultant with the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), U C Jena, deputy director (mines)-Joda, K C Sahoo, deputy secretary (steel & mines department), Arun Kumar Verma, city-based chartered accountant and Manoranjan Naik, assistant commissioner (enforcement), commercial taxes.

The documents that will be studied by the committee are audited balance sheets as well as profit & loss accounts along with all the schedules of the lessee, mining contractor, power of attorney holder or any other person or agency involved in formal or informal arrangements with the lessee regarding mining or sharing of profits.

Other documents that will be scrutinized by the committee include relevant lease deeds and agreements, tax audit reports along with all the annexure of the lessee and the contractor, ledger account of the contractor in the books of the lessees along with supporting documents and bank accounts as well as books of accounts of the relevant parties.

According to Section 37 (1) of MC Rules-1960, no lessee can assign, sub-let, mortgage or in any other manner transfer the mining lease without the prior written consent of the state government.

It may be noted that former BJD MLA Debasis Nayak had brought to fore allegations pertaining to the unholy alliance between mining contractors and political personalities in Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts.

In a letter to the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on May 19 this year, Nayak had alleged that Triveni Earth Movers Ltd in collusion with Sanatana Mahakuda, a defeated candidate from the Champua constituency in Keonjhar district is leading the mining mafia in Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts.

Both Triveni Earth Movers and Mahakuda have forcibly taken over the mining operations of several mines in these two districts illegally and local mine owners have been forced to give their consent under gun point, Nayak had said in the letter.

Nayak further said that majority of illegal movement of minerals is being done with the active facilitation of this mining mafia.

According to Nayak's letter, all the 12 mines of five lessees- Kalinga Mining Corporation (Jalhari-Joda), Serajuddin & Co (Belda), D R Patnak (Murga), TV P Roy (Guali), Indrani Patnaik (Unchabali) and K J S Ahluwalia (Guali) in Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts are being mined by Triveni Earth Movers Ltd.

Nayak accused Triveni Earth Movers of flouting all existing rules and being engaged in extraction of ores beyond the approved quantity which may lead to exhaustion of ore from the said mines in the next 8-10 years.

Earlier, the state steel & mines department had asked the Directorate of Mines to expedite enquiry into all cases relating to violation of Mineral Concession (MC) Rules-1960.

Directions were also issued to the mines directorate to instruct all the deputy director of mines and mining officers to issue notices to lessees under Section 27(1) (i) of MC Rules-1960 to furnish all relevant documents.

If there is prima facie evidence of violation, the facts along with all the details needed to be brought to the notice of the government for taking necessary action.