Seven miners pulled up for under-reporting prices

In a bid to rein in unscrupulous miners engaged in under-reporting of sale value of iron ore, the deputy director of mines of Joda circle has served showcause notice to seven mine owners.

The errant miners include Essel Mining, K P Enterprises, K N Ram, R P Sao, Rungta Mines Pvt Ltd, Rungta Sons Pvt Ltd and Tarini Minerals Pvt Ltd.

"The state steel & mines department in its letter dated August 9 this year had asked the deputy director of mines and the mining officers to take action against the miners who are involved in under-reporting of pit mouth value (PMV) of iron ore. The matter came to the notice of the state government on November 2010 and thereafter it was investigated by the steel & mines department. Initially, 10 miners were found to be under-reporting sale value of iron ore and this was brought to the notice of Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM),” minister for industries and steel & mines Raghunath Mohanty said in the state assembly.

The spat between the Orissa government and IBM over under-reporting of iron ore prices had intensified with the state seeking the intervention of the Department of Mines, Government of India to check this disturbing trend.

Holding the IBM responsible for its faulty procedures adopted in fixing sale value of iron ore, the state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik had urged the Union mines secretary S Vijay Kumar to take appropriate remedial measures so that the state government does not suffer revenue loss.