Mine lease renewal cases to go under scanner

With more than 200 RML (renewal of mining lease) applications pending at different levels, the state government is keen on disposing such cases at the earliest.

“The Chief Secretary has convened a meeting to review status of RML applications on April 20. More than 200 such applications are pending at different levels including government, directorate and collectorate level. The state government is also mulling to frame a dedicate mine lease renewal policy which will be discussed at the meeting,” said a highly placed official source.

The proposed RML policy is aimed at expeditious and efficient disposal of RML applications. The policy will cover all applicants for mine lease renewal including those currently working under deemed extension.

 

For mines operating under deemed extension, the policy will have provisions to ensure that all mining laws including Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act-1957 and Mineral Concession Rules-1960 are followed in letter and spirit. The state has taken a leaf out of the Karnataka government which was the first state to introduce a new mining policy by which fresh leases and renewals of mining leases in respect of iron ore were given only if there was value addition in the state.

The state steel & mines department has so far disposed off around 70 applications for RML and is committed to overcome pendency in such applications at the earliest.

Meanwhile, 51 lessees are operating their mines under deemed extension. The list of mines operating under deemed extension includes Tata Steel, Ferro Alloys Corporation Ltd (FACOR), Essel Mining & Industries Ltd Mid-East Integrated Steel, Patnaik Minerals Ltd, R P Sao, Rungta Mines and OCL India among others.

The steel & mines department has rebuffed RML cases of Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys-IMFA, B C Sahu, Basudev Pradhan, K K Das, K K Agrawal, Keonjhar Minerals Ltd, Pravash Chandra Agrawal, B K Mohanty, R C Das, Neelachal Refractories, P R Jain, Pratap Chandra Mohanty, Prabir Ghose, Jyoti Parmanik, D M Minerals and Shah Refractories to name a few. A special cell has been constituted within the department for for disposal of RML applications.

The decision to form the RML cell was prompted by the huge volume of pending cases and the inordinate delay in disposal of such cases.The cell is monitoring the disposal and processing of cases by the concerned officers of the department. Besides, the cell is also coordinating with the office of the Mines Directorate.

The M B Shah Commission of enquiry constituted by Government of India in November 2010 to look into cases of growing illegal mining activities and suggest remedial measures had held that the provisions around renewal of mining lease involving deemed extension as laid down in the Mineral Concessions Rules-1960 are often misused.

Stating that the provisions of deemed extensions for unlimited period open windows for illegal mining, the commission had suggested limiting this period to one year.