By Our Correspondent
KOIRA/JODA/BARBIL/BHUBANESWAR: By making a mockery of Odisha Minerals (Prevention of Theft, Smuggling and Illegal Mining and Regulation of Possession, Storage, Trading and Transportation) Rules and Regulations, mining lease holders working under Joda-Koira mining circles of State’s mineral bearing Keonjhar and Sundargarh are reportedly adopting unscrupulous ways to obtain transit permit for mineral transportations, sources said on Tuesday.
“With 24 mining blocks all set to resume operations after the State Government started executing mining lease to them, such illegal activities will further revitalised if tangible action not taken in time,” a Barbil, Keonjhar local alleged. “Many mines are transporting minerals under the provision of stacking. Present revenue collection of Rs 11,019 crore for all minerals in FY 19-20 would have been much higher if the under reporting of grade and royalty was prevented. The Government should check illegal transportation and storage of minerals,” sources revealed.
“Vigilance of mining and transport of mineral using drone technology should be adopted at the earliest. Inquiry most be initiated on position and movement of material from stacks, based on the Google map/ image from Cartosat satellite as these are capable of showing movement of material stack wise for retrospective dates also. The Government must inquire about grant of transit permit on the same date of applying under Form J without actual field verification,” they said.
They further alleged that big players who have taken mining lease at very high premiums which are not possible to be shared, will resort to all kinds of malpractices. He urged the State to take bold steps on withdrawing the stacking and sampling permission to all mines, not allowing the change in definition of the average sale price as ascertained by IBM, imposing a rate of Rs 4/ton for slurry transport amongst others.
Sources closely monitoring the mining activities and mineral transportations, however revealed that due to wrongful system for issuance of Transit Permit, the verification report of the concerned Mining Inspector is issued on the same date of submitting application in Form J. The average distance from mining circles to mining lease area is 10-50 km and it is difficult for a person to visit all these mines daily, inspect and issue reports on the same date. It has come to notice that the verification reports are issued online without site inspection of many stacks, sources alleged.
Lessees keep on transporting high grade material directly from the mines showing them as low grade stacked material. It invites malpractices in grade declaration in the chemical analysis report in Form K issued by the Government laboratory considering the strength of manpower, time in analysis of samples and issuance of reports. Further, there is a need for a physical verification of the samples which are required to be kept as umpire samples at concerned DDM office for future verifications, they alleged.
In case of mineral transportation by railway wagon, samples of minerals shall be drawn by the person authorized by the concerned DDM office /Analytical chemist. The analysis of samples shall be done at Government laboratory. Considering large rake movement, it invites manipulation of grades wherever stacking permission has been granted, they said.
The loss incurred to the State Government must be recovered from the lessees who have adopted the malpractices. Penal action may be initiated against few mines who do not even have space for stacking and sampling given their high EC capacity and the overall lease area.
An inquiry to be instituted for the past 3-4 years depending on when the clearance for stacking and sampling was granted to these mines and strict action be taken for recovery. New lessees who have taken the mining lease through auction should continue with the same practice of paying the highest royalty as was being followed before auctions. The State level task force reports of Narayanposhi, Aryan Mining and Trading Corporation should be made public, they added.
Meanwhile, Odisha Government is working on Road Map for development of Mineral Sector as per the National Mining Policy. Odisha, Chhattisgarh Jharkhand, Karnataka, Goa and other mineral rich states have been urged to bring out Road Map for the crucial sector by the Ministry of Mines.Union Government had formulated National Mining Policy in 2019 to give impetus to the directions issued by Supreme Court of India and Ministry of Mines will be chalking out an Action Plan in this regard.
Once mineral rich State Governments chalk out Action Plan or the Road Map for development of Mineral Sector, these will be synchronized and a National Action Plan will be in place, said sources.Earlier it has been decided that Ministry of Mines will carry out an Action Plan for implementing provisions of National Mineral Policy (NMP)-2019.
Ministry of Mines has asked the State Government that while bringing out an Action Plan for development of Mineral Sector, there will be emphasis on strengthening the Regulatory Mechanism with incorporating e-Governance System in a proper way.
Apart from that inclusion of satellite and remote sensing applications are needed, which will ensure transparency in the Mechanism. Information Technology (IT) applications will be utilized in a big way for brining in transparency, officials said in Bhubaneswar.Provision will be made for end-to-end accounting of mineral and ore in the supply chain with use of IT enabled system.
In order to prevent illegal mining, appropriate mechanism will be put in place for generation of awareness among the people and large scale information campaign will be launched for involvement of local population to supplement the Law enforcement capabilities in preventing illegal mining.
IMP stipulates that the core functioning of the State in mineral sector will be facilitation and regulation of exploration and mining activities while making provision for development of infrastructure and tax collection.Union Government has advised the State Government to ensure transparency and fair play, while reserving areas for State Mineral Development Agencies.Grant of clearances for commencement of Mining Operations shall be streamlined with simpler and time bound procedures.
These are to be facilitated through an online public portal with provision for generating triggers at higher level in the event of delay, said an official. As part of the initiative for Ease Of Doing Business (EoDB), the State Government shall make Endeavour to auction Mineral Blocks with Pre-Embedded statutory clearances.Mineral Bearing Zones will be earmarked as Mining Land in the Land Records by the State Government, said sources.
