Orissa yet to submit report on mineral concessions

The Union ministry of mines is yet to receive the quarterly reports from the Orissa government on status of disposal of applications for mineral concessions, status of execution of mining leases and renewal of concessions.

In case of Orissa, the quarterly reports are pending from the October-December quarter of 2009-10 till the October-December quarter of 2010-11. The state government seems to have been dilly-dallying on sending such reports despite repeated reminders of the ministry.

As per a report compiled by the Union ministry of mines (as on February 18), Orissa is the only state which is yet to submit any report to the ministry for the past five quarters.

In the last meeting of 10 states on 'Prevention of Illegal Mining', held in November last year, the Union mines ministry had directed the state government to submit all pending quarterly reports on status of mineral concessions, status of execution of mining leases and renewal of concessions.

It may be noted that the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court of India had asked the state government to expedite cases of renewal of mining leases. However, the state government has not made much progress in this connection.

As many as 310 applicants had applied for renewal of mining leases (RML) out of which 53 were eligible and they are now operating under deemed extension.

The state steel and mines department, meanwhile, has targeted to renew 150 cases within the next 12 months. To start with, the department will first renew eight out of these 53 cases which have all the requisite clearances and are currently operating under deemed extension.

The steel & mines department has already issued renewal notices to the firms operating these mines. Out of the 53 mining leases, 28 cases which do not have the requisite forest clearance have paid the Net Present Value (NPV) for diversion of forest land for mining activities.

The NPV collection from mining activities has been to the tune of Rs 2400 crore out of which the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) has paid around Rs 800 crore.

Among these 53 cases, there are 10 cases which have Temporary Work Permit (TWP) and are awaiting the Stage-II forest clearance. Also, there are two cases sub judice with the Supreme Court of India while other cases of renewal pertain to mining activities being carried out on non-forest land.

RML cases in the state were temporarily put on hold as a six-member committee headed by Director (Mines) was constituted to look into the cases of miners raising ores beyond the IBM (Indian Bureau of Mines) approved Mining Plan.

According to the report submitted by the committee in September end, there were 87 mines lifting ores beyond the approved 'Mining Plan' of IBM.