R P Sao called for personal hearing over Rule-37 violation

Initiating action against the lessees found guilty of violating Rule-37 of Mineral Concession Rules- 1960, the state steel & mines department has called R P Sao for personal hearing on February 28.

Earlier, the department had called KJS Ahluwalia for personal hearing in connection with this statutory violation. Another mine lessee- Indrani Patnaik has also been called for hearing on February 22.

All the three lessees are in the dock for forging links with Thriveni Earthmovers Ltd, a mine raising contractor active in the Joda circle.

Five more lessees- Sarada Mines (Barbil), Aryan Mines (Koira), Mala Ray mines (Keonjhar), Kabita Agrawal (Koira) and Mideast Integrated Steel's (Mesco) Barbil mines are being investigated for the same violation. However, their links with the raising contractor have not been established.

The alleged nexus between the mine lessees and raising contractor Thriveni Earthmovers Ltd in the Joda mining circle in Koenjhar district had earlier snowballed into a major issue. Several MLAs of the Opposition Congress as well as the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) urged the Chief Minister to initiate stringent action against the miners as well as the contractor.

The state government had appointed 16 chartered accountants to detect cases of alleged violations of Rule 37 of Mineral Concession Rules- 1960.

These chartered accountants were appointed to conduct preliminary verification of balance sheet, audited accounts, tax audit report, IT and VAT (Value Added Tax) returns) as well as related documents of the mines.

The chartered accountants were to carry out the work assigned to them in a team with an officer of the mining department.

The mining officer would be from a mining circle other than in which the mine is located.