Oscar Fernandes seeks allotment of captive mines for KIOCL

The Congress leader from Karnataka has sought reservation of captive mines under the provisions of amended MMDR Act to public sector undertaking

Beleaguered steel ministry undertaking KIOCL Limited, which is struggling to survive without captive iron ore mines, received fresh support from a group of senior Congress leaders from the state for its fight to secure captive mining lease. A group of leaders headed by Rajya Sabha member and former minister Oscar Fernandes on Tuesday urged Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to allot captive iron ore mines to the company immediately.

Fernandes met the chief minister in Bengaluru and handed over a memorandum in support of the company’s demand for allotment of captive iron ore mines in the Ramanadurga region of iron ore-rich district of Ballari.

KIOCL had suspended its mining activities at its Kudremukh mine site with effect from January 1, 2006, following a direction from the Supreme Court. Since then, the company has been sourcing iron ore from NMDC’s mines in Chhattisgarh at a higher logistic cost to run its pellet plant at Mangaluru.

“As a result of the stoppage of mining activities at Kudremukh, the entire operations of KIOCL have been jeopardised. Despite being a flagship company under the Ministry of Steel, KIOCL has been struggling for its survival due to non-allotment of captive mines. The recently amended MMRD Act provides for allotment of captives mines to public sector companies. The state government should allot mines under the new Act immediately and help revive the public sector company,” Fernandes said during his meeting with the chief minister.

KIOCL had submitted application for grant of mining lease way back in March 2000 and again in April 2003 for Block No. 13/1 in Ramanadurga iron ore deposit in Sandur taluk of Ballari district over an area of 1,573 hectares. The Karnataka government in its letter dated March 21, 2005, assured of reserving 50 per cent of the area available in Block No. 13 in favour of KIOCL. The government also conducted hearing on August 31, 2010 and September 2, 2010.

Following the implementation of MMDR Amendment Act, 2015 on January 12, 2015, KIOCL submitted reservation proposal to the government of Karnataka under the provisions of Section 17 A 2(A) of MMDR Amendment Act, 2015, for the allotment of mining areas in Block No. 13/1 of Ramanadurga iron ore deposit over an area of 840 hectares on April 1, 2015. It has also sought allotment of mines in the Kumaraswamy range in Sandur taluk over an area of 107.55 hectares on February 13, 2015 to the Secretary of Mines, government of Karnataka.

In a memorandum submitted to the chief minister on Tuesday,  KIOCL sought allotment of captive mines in these two regions. The company also requested the chief minister to advise the officials concerned to put up reservation proposal to government of India for these mining areas in favour of KIOCL.

“This would go a long way in rejuvenating a central PSU in the state and bring back the company once again to its highest glory and benefits to the local population and development of the state,” N Vidyananda, director (P&P), KIOCL said in the memorandum.