Coming under intense pressure from the Orissa government, the port authorities of Haldia and Vishakhapatnam have decided to share complete information on mineral ore exported from their ports from November 1 this year.
These ports would furnish information to the state once in a fortnight beginning November 1 on the number of trucks arriving at the ports, the quantity of mineral loaded, the quantum of ore exported and names of transporters.
“Except the Paradip Port, none of the other ports were sharing information on ore exports. We had asked the authorities of different ports to come for on Tuesday's meeting. The authorities of Haldia and Vishakhapatnam have agreed to share information on ore exports once in every 15 days from November 1. The state government, in turn, will verify whether the ore transporters are having a valid permit or not as we have got some allegations of minerals being illegally transported from the state. The authorities of Gangavaram and Kakinada ports did not attend the meeting,” said the state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik.
G J Rao, chairman of Paradip Port Trust (PPT) said, “We are already providing information to the Orissa government on ore exports and will continue to do so in the future.”
Peeved over the irregularity in submission of information on ore exports by some of the ports, the Orissa government had recently sought the intervention of the Centre to ensure that the details of ores received at different ports are supplied to the state director of mines.
The state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik had shot off a letter to the Union Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth on October 21 in this connection.
“It is seen that almost all the ports excepting Paradip Port located in the state, are not furnishing the information regularly on the receipt of minerals through road and rail for export purpose to enable the state government to verify whether the minerals have been received against valid permit. The Ministry of shipping may be advised to ensure that the details of ore received at different ports are supplied to the Director of Mines, Orissa to co-relate with the quantity for which royalty payment has been made by the lessees,” Patnaik said in his letter to the Cabinet secretary.