The five member team of Justice M B Shah Commission of enquiry, which has been in Odisha since October 3 to probe illegal mining, has detected massive irregularities during scrutinisation of mining records and other documents. Most of the irregularities include conducting mining operation without statutory clearances such as forest and environment.
“The miners operate by obtaining consents from departments such as forest, environment, Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) and state mines directorate. During the verification, it was found that several miners have excavated without statutory clearances,” said a highly placed source.
The officials of the visiting probe panel though did not elaborate about the findings, said there was some complexity in the records.
“Some of the mines have complicated matter.. I think we have to come back,” said U V Singh, who is heading the five member team, on the seventh day of enquiry.
The team has so far completed investigating records of 65 mines and is expected to verify about 20 odd papers in the remaining period of their stay, out of total 142 iron ore and manganese mines.
The probe panel is scheduled to leave the state on October 12 and would like to come back for pending investigation, said Singh, who is also the additional principal conservator of forest from Karanataka.
The members of the commission are focusing their investigation on all iron ore and manganese leases permitted by Odisha since 1952, and are cross checking the data with relevant papers in other departments. Their investigation include validity of mining leases, statutory clearances, mineral output, sale and tax deposits.
Odisha, which has largest iron ore deposits in the country, is the only mineral rich state that has allowed operation of mines despite allegation of illegal mining since 2009. There are restrictions on iron ore mining in other two major producing states—Karantaka and Goa.