Faced with the constraints on granting new mining leases in view of the cap on extraction of iron ore at 30 million tonne per annum, the Karnataka government has appealed to the Supreme Court to withdraw its order on limiting iron ore production.
The state government, in a fresh appeal before the Apex Court recently, stated that the cap of 30 million tonnes per annum from the three mining districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur would jeopardize setting up of new steel mills in the state.
The Supreme Court, in its order dated April 20, 2012 on the recommendation of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), had stipulated that a maximum of 25 million tonnes of iron ore can be extracted annually from Bellary district and 5 million tonnes from the districts of Chitradurga and Tumkur.
“With reference to the above said stipulation it is submitted that the revised capacity of the already approved “A” and “B” category mines will be about 16-17 million tonnes, which when added to the permitted capacity of 12 million tonnes of the two NMDC mines will reach the ceiling of 30 million tonnes per annum and therefore there will be no scope for granting any new mining lease in the future,” S V Ranganath, chief secretary, government of Karnataka said in the affidavit.
The annual ceiling limit of 30 million tonnes recommended by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is based on their assessment of the existing infrastructure. However, there will be significant improvement in the infrastructure as a result of the implementation of the Reclamation and Rehabilitation (R &R) Plans and the projects under the comprehensive Environment plan for mining Impact Zone (CEPMIZ). This has to be taken into consideration while assessing a ceiling on production of iron ore, the government said.
The approved limit of 30 million MT of annual production is not enough even for the existing steel manufacturing plants in Karnataka and nearby States, which depend on ore from Karnataka. Therfore, with this cap, no new iron and steel manufacturing plant can come up in Karnataka. In fact the investment proposals for a cumulative capacity of over 30 million tonne of steel production are already being processed, the affidavit said.