The state steel & mines department has called iron ore mine owners KJS Ahluwalia and Indrani Patnaik for personal hearing in connection with violation of Rule-37 of Mineral Concession Rules-1960.
While KJS Ahluwalia has been summoned by the department on December 9, the other lessee- Indrani Patnaik has been assigned a hearing date on December 22.
Earlier, the department had served show cause notices on three lessees- RP Sao, Indrani Patnaik and KJS Ahluwalia for violation of the said rule.
Confirming the development, a senior official of steel & mines department said, “KJS Ahluwalia and Indrani Patnaik have been called for personal hearing over Rule-37 violation. R P Sao will also be called soon.”
Five more lessees- Sarada Mines (Barbil), Aryan Mines (Koira), Mala Ray mines (Keonjhar), Kabita Agrawal (Koira) and Mideast Integrated Steel's (Mesco) Barbil mines are in the dock for the same violation.
“The steel & mines department will serve show cause notices to these five miners as well.” the official added.
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The alleged nexus between the mine lessees and raising contractor Thriveni Earthmovers Ltd in the Joda mining circle in Koenjhar district had snowballed into a major issue with the MLAs of the Opposition Congress as well as the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) urging the Chief Minister to initiate stringent action against the miners as well as the contractor.
Two Congress legislators and six lawmakers of the ruling party had written to the Chief Minister in this connection.
These legislators had alleged that the mining mafia led by defeated MLA candidate Sanatana Mahakud in collusion with the mining contractor had forcibly taken control of ten mines in the Joda circle using their muscle power.
Thriveni Earthmovers has, however, trashed these allegations.
“We are only the raising contractor for some lessees. Our company has nothing to do with their financial transactions or sales of ore by the miners,” B Prabhakaran, managing director, Thriveni Earthmovers told Business Standard. He said, Thriveni has neither forged any link with Mahakud nor taken forcible control of any mine.
Meanwhile, the state government had appointed 16 chartered accountants to detect cases of alleged violations of Rule 37 of Mineral Concession Rules- 1960.
These chartered accountants were appointed to conduct preliminary verification of balance sheet, audited accounts, tax audit report, IT and VAT (Value Added Tax) returns) as well as related documents of the mines.
The chartered accountants were to carry out the work assigned to them in a team with an officer of the mining department. The mining officer would be from a mining circle other than in which the mine is located.
Earlier, the state government had constituted a six-member committee to carry out an investigative study of the financial transaction of the lessees and the raising contractors.