Mines seeking to restart operation lack clearances

The Inter-Departmental Committee on Mines today found that all the 11 iron ore and manganese mines seeking resumption of operations lacked required statutory clearances.
The committee headed by Development Commissioner U N Behera found during deliberations that the 11 mines needed to acquire the clearances before seeking permission to resume operation.
"The status of the 11 closed mines were reviewed by the inter-departmental committee today. The committee deliberated on the validity of extending the lease of these mines under the new provisions of the MMDR Act 2015 that came into force on January 12 this year," Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty told reporters here.

Stating that the committee discussed the conditions under which renewals can be given to these mines, Mohanty said the state government will take a decision on whether to allow their operation. All the 11 mines are non-working and remained closed for not having statutory clearances and other reasons.
Replying to a question, Mohanty said all of them are merchant mining not having any captive use. He said if these mines do not get statutory clearances, their reopening will not be possible.
Earlier on April 18, the state government had extended the lease period of 26 mines and issued orders to the companies to execute supplementary lease deeds within three months.