Orissa serves showcause notices on two scam-tainted miners

The Orissa government has served showcause notices on Indrani Patnaik and S N Das Mohapatra mines for their involvement in illegal mining activities.

This follows the completion of the probe by the State Vigilance into the alleged involvement of these two miners in the mining scam.

"We have served showcause notices on Indrani Patnaik and S N Das Mohapatra mines for cancellation of their mining leases. These miners were involved in illegal mining activities and they have been asked to respond to the notices within 60 days. In the showcause notice, we have asked as to why the loss of revenue due to illegal mining by these two miners should not be recovered from them”, state minister for steel & mines Raghunath Mohanty told reporters

The revenue loss is estimated at Rs 1131 crore in case of the Indrani Patnaik Mines and Rs 54 crore in case of the S N Das Mohapatra mines.

Faced with a barrage of criticism over the mining scam, the Orissa government had launched a crack down on miners involved in these illegal activities.

After giving the green signal to the State Vigilance to prosecute seven officials of the state mines department for their involvement in the Ram Bahadur Thakur case, the state government had trained its guns on two other miners for their involvement in the scam- Arjun Ladha and B C Dev Mines.

The hearing is underway for Arjun Ladha Mines while the government is conducting field enquiry in case of B C.Dev Mines.