The Central Empowered Committee (CEC), appointed by the Supreme Court of India, today completed its hearing pertaining to the alleged illegal mining activities in Orissa.
After the submissions by the Orissa government in the matter, the CEC stated that it would make an interim recommendation to the Supreme Court which would pass an order to this effect.
Concluding the hearing, the CEC said, evolution of forest and environment laws as applicable to the mining sector in the country has taken a long time. Though the state government has been taking action based on the existing laws, CEC felt further improvement is required.
CEC said, there was no apparent violation by the Orissa government. However its recommendations would help to improve the existing laws.
It also stated that for both Renewal Mining Lease (RML) and mining lease (ML), the lessees would have to pay the Net Present Value (NPV) of the forests for the entire lease area as per the Supreme Court direction of 2002.
This is expected to fetch the state government about Rs 1000 crore additional revenue with the state owned companies like Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) also required to pay the NPV.
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On the issue of forest diversion, the committee stated that the lessee would have to seek forest diversion of the entire lease area to be given for mining. However, for safety zones and roads there is no need for diversion but the ML holder would have to pay the NPV.
Though forest clearance wouldn’t be required in cases where there is no forest land within the lease area, the lease holder would have to abide by the environmental and other statutory clearances. In case of violation of these norms, the lease would be cancelled.
According to sources, the recommendations would focus on clarifying forest laws and the laws governing the deemed renewal extension (DRE) of the Mining Leases (ML) among others. While the Orissa government argued that the forest laws in the case of DRE is not clear, the CEC is reported to have accepted the government stand and would clarify the law further in its recommendations.
It may be noted, the state government was allowing deemed extension to the mining lease holders to operate in the non-forest areas under Section 24 (A) 6 of MMDR Act, which was termed as illegal.
Besides, CEC stated that there would be no mining within one kilometer radius of the national park or wildlife sanctuary. The recommendations are likely to be sent to the Supreme Court in the first week of May.