Shah panel to visit state again

Panel to investigate leases of OMC, OMDC & Tata Steel among others

The Justice M B Shah Commission of enquiry will visit Odisha yet again from October 31-November 11 to continue its investigation into cases of large scale mining of iron ore and manganese without lawful authority.

The team to be led by U V Singh, additional principal conservator of forests, Gujarat government will consist of other members like Bishwajeet Mishra, conservator of forests (Karanataka), Saroj Sadangi, deputy chief vigilance officer- South Eastern Railway (Kolkata), G T Pandya, deputy commissioner (industries & mines), Gujarat government, Janardan Prasad, senior geologist, Gujarat unit of Geological Surveyof India and A V S Prasad, stenographer of the commission.

"I am directed to request you to direct the secretary of all departments that he should keep available the concerned officer during the visit of the commission to assist for taking out information from the files and other records. The detailed programme regarding the places of visit will be informed by U V Singh reaching Bhubaneswar”, Sudhir S Shah, registrar of the Shah Commission of enquiry wrote to Odisha chief secretary B K Patnaik.

The commission during its recent visit to the state from October 3-11 scrutinized records of 81 mining leases of a total of 186 mining leases.

The panel skipped field verification of mine leases during its last visit though there was speculation that it would visit select mines in the Koira mining sector in Sundergarh district.

“The commission has informed the state government that they will be visiting the state from October 31. They have not communicated if they will take up field verification of mines”, said a senior steel & mines department official.

The panel among other cases is specifically keen on checking records of mining leases of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), Odisha Minerals Development Corporation (OMDC) and Tata Steel.

In case of OMC and OMDC, the panel will verify records of all mines, contract agreements, procedure followed for contracts of sale, execution of works purchases andothers.

In case of Tata Steel, the panel will verify total production in all mines, taxes paid, balance sheet, all records of mining leases of Odisha and Jharkhand and all details of steel plants, storage plants and others.

The commission has also sought specific details from all relevant departments to further its probe into alleged illegal mining activities in the state.

The mines department has been asked to make available all the files of the leases, first lease grant, notifications of subsequent renewals, transfer of lease (if any), copy of all registered lease deeds of all mines, details of company's directors, details of status of lease land of all the leases and audit reports of the Accountant General.

The forest department has been asked to make available all files of leases of first notification of diversion of forest land by Government of India, details of compensatory afforestation, details of payment of net present value (NPV), copies of all proposals submitted to Government of India for diversion of forest land and lease wisedetails of compensatory afforestation completed.

Similarly, Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has been asked to keep available details of all returns filed from 2000, mining plan approvals of all leases, all modifications issued for increased production of all leases and production details of mines since 1995.