Mining ministers' meet to be held in Goa tomorrow

Union Minister of Mines Narendra Singh Tomar will chair a meeting here tomorrow of ministers in-charge of mining in various state governments.
The meeting is expected have mines ministers of 21 mineral-rich states, with an official release informing that it would be the fifth such multi-state mining ministers meet.
"The meeting would provide an appropriate platform to monitor the progress of auctions in the country. The use of the "Transparency Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation (TAMRA)" mobile application to monitor the status of clearances of auctioned mines to further the agenda of "ease of doing business" will be discussed in the meeting," an official release said.

"The Mineral Auction Rules have been amended by the Ministry of Mines on November 30, 2017 to make auctions less cumbersome and to expedite them," the press note informed.
"Several key amendments such as providing more flexibility to the states for conducting auction of annulled blocks, relaxation of end use conditions for miners and changes in considering the net worth requirement of the bidders to attract more participants in the auction process have been done," the release said.
It added that the preparedness of the states to carry out auction of mineral blocks in the changed scenario will be discussed.

The first session of the meeting is expected to have ministers detailing efforts taken by their respective states to promote the growth of the mining sector.

"The status of the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) to be implemented by the District Mineral Foundation (DMFs) will be discussed in the meeting along with details of the schemes launched by the states and the amount spent for the development of mining affected areas," it added.
The meeting will also discuss the plan for auctioning merchant mining leases expiring in 2020.
"The road map for carrying out exploration as per norms, conducting auction with buffer time for annulments, and timely grant of clearances needs to be formulated," the release said.

The utilization of the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) to curb illegal mining with the use of space technology will be discussed at the meeting.
The MSS has been developed by the Ministry of Mines through Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), with the help of Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG), Gujarat.
The mandatory implementation of the "Star Rating System" for sustainable and responsible mining will be discussed in the meeting, the release said.