The Orissa government has so far suspended the operation of 246 mines in the state due to lack of statutory clearances.
The operation of these mines has been suspended due to various reasons including want of environmental clearance, pending forest clearance, non-approval of Mining Plan, non-payment of Net Present Value (NPV) for diversion of forest land for mining activities and want of no-objection certificate from the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB).
"The state government has so far suspended the operation of 246 mines for want of statutory clearances. As many as 151 cases have been registered and 338 people have been arrested in connection with illegal mining operations”, Raghunath Mohanty, the state minister for industries and steel & mines informed the state assembly.
The minister said, the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has suspended the Malda manganese ore mines of Tata Steel spread over 822 hectares on August 30 this year for deviation from the approved Mining Plan. Similarly, the Khandadhar iron ore mines of Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) spread over 1212.47 hectares have also been suspended by the IBM for the same reason on August 24.
Also, the operation of OMC's Nishikhal manganese ore mine spread over 501.67 hectares in Koraput district has been suspended by the circle mining office on May 14 due to non-approval of Mining Plan and want of environmental clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF).
The other two mines of OMC, whose operation was suspended in August this year by IBM, are Khandbandh iron ore mine spread over 366.31 hectares at Joda and Balda-Palsa-Jajang iron ore mine spread over 861.52 hectares .
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While the operation of Khandbandh iron ore mine has been suspended due to want of forest clearance, that of Balda-Palsa-Jajang mine has been suspended because of want of forest clearance, non-approval of Mining Plan, pending environmental clearance from the MoEF and lack of No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the SPCB.
The IBM, on September 2 this year, also suspended the operation of OMC's iron ore and manganese ore mines due to pending environmental clearance from the MoEF, want of forest clearance, want of NOC from the SPCB and carrying out mining operation in contravention of the IBM approved Mining Plan.
The work at Ib River Valley coal mine of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) has been suspended by the circle mining office on July 24 this year for nonpayment of NPV.