As many as 30 mines under the leasehold of the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) are currently not in operation as the approval for Forest Diversion Plan (FDP) is pending for most of these mines. These mines have deposits of iron ore, limestone, chromite, manganese and gemstone.
FDP as well as environmental clearance is pending for Baniapanka chromite mines and Dubna-Sekradihi iron ore & manganese mines leased out to OMC in Keonjhar district.
This was informed by the minister for steel and mines Raghunath Mohanty in the state legislative assembly.
“As per the recent guidelines of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court of India, the necessary NPV (Net Present Value) over the total forest land has been paid in respect of 20 mines by OMC. Further, FDP proposals are being processed at different levels for obtaining approval of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in rest of the mining leases”, Mohanty said.
For the four gemstone mines- Umpavalley, Jillinghdhar, Hinjilibahal and Malipada, OMC has sought government approval for working through raising and sale contract.
OMC has paid a dividend of Rs 610 crore to the state government during 2005-06 to 2008-09 and sales tax of Rs 296.02 crore from 2005-06 till June this year.