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It was never uneasy for them to challenge the Odisha government order in a court regarding reservation of minerals for local industries or to duck a government request for online auction of minerals under a single platform.
They were not perturbed either by frequent calls by Supreme Court appointed committees or visit by members of M B Shah Commission of inquiry as they have maintained that mining activities in Odisha were irregular and not illegal.
They have even questioned the legal validity of the recovery notices sent by the government for returning Rs 65,000 crore to state exchequer for minerals extracted without necessary approvals, saying the royalties collected for the materials do not make the extraction illegal.
However, the officials of top mining companies in Odisha are worried now over a Supreme Court interim order that might hamper their prospect of doing business in the state.They are waiting for a Supreme Court interim order regarding validity of automatic renewal process of mining leases, with their finger crossed, as they fear the top court might slap a mining ban order. These days it is more important to know which mines will be shut down, rather than the mine that will keep operating,”said a top official of state-run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC). The miner estimates it could lose as much as one million tonne iron ore output a year if the apex court rejects the deemed renewal status of its Kurmitar (Khandadhar) mining lease. The top court has held that automatic renewals of mining leases, after first renewal period of 20 years is illegal, while passing a ruling in case of Goa mining in April this year.
Later, while hearing a public interest litigation, It had asked the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to submit a status of all the mines in Odisha regarding availability of necessary clearances including status of deemed extension of leases.The CEC has submitted that while all operating mines in the state have statutory approvals, as many as 27 miners including Tata Steel, OMC, Aditya Birla group controlled Essel Mining, Rungta and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) are operating iron ore, manganese and chrome ore mines in Odisha with the provision of deemed extension more than 20 years after the first renewal was granted.
The top court, after hearing arguments on April 28, has reserved its judgement.
Many miners have privately admitted that the SC interim order regarding deemed extension of mining leases could wipe off nearly half of 78 million tonne iron ore produced by the state as the process of extraction of natural resources in the state dates back to as early as 1905.“The situation is cloudy as of now. We do not know what will happen to the Odisha mining industry,” said an official of a sponge iron maker in West Bengal, which sources raw material from Odisha.
However, since Supreme Court observation in Goa was based on 20 year period from 1987 to 2007, the same period should be used for Odisha case too, argued advocate Pinaki Mishra. “If we take the SC ruling strictly as it is, then 99 per cent of Odisha mines do not come under this category. Barring a few, no miners operated under the deemed extension clause continuously for a period of 20 years starting 1987,” Mishra had argued in this case in the court.
