States get active on curbing illegal mining

The central and state governments have agreed on tightening measures to curb illegal mining in the country. It has been decided that satellite imagery sourced from state remote-sensing organisations would be used for this purpose.

Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and West Bengal have established state-level coordination committees. Further, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Tripura have prepared a plan of action.

Mining ministry officials told Business Standard: “The issue of illegal mining has been a major concern for the Government of India and the position is being reviewed periodically at various levels. A decision has been taken for the use of satellite imagery sourced from state remote-sensing organisations to curb illegal mining.”

They said states had agreed to develop mechanisms for collection and monitoring of data regarding prices of various minerals, wherein the price trend could indicate chances of illegal mining.

According to the ministry of mines, during 2009, the state governments detected 58,294 cases of illegal mining, involving an area of 8,267.5 hectares. About 1,400 cases were registered by the police.

States have agreed to develop a mechanism for monitoring of information on movement of trucks and other vehicles from mining areas to ports, markets and manufacturing units which use mineral ores, and to correlate these with production data to capture any spurt in mining activity. Moreover, states would maintain and collect information from ports, custom authorities and the ministry of commerce on export of ores out of the country. To trace unauthorised transport or sale of ores, states would resort to bar coding, wherein holograms would be used for transport permits and royalty-paid ones.

States would register all end-users, who would be directed to mandatorily check payment of royalty before purchase of ores for various manufacturing processes, with penalties for violations. They would also develop reporting mechanisms for traders of mineral ores and end-use industries, to report receipt of ore for which royalty payments have not been made.