The fate of 87 errant miners who have raised mineral ores beyond the approved 'Mining Plan' of the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) in the past ten years is set to be decided soon.
"A six-member committee was constituted under Director (Mines) to look into cases of the miners who had raised ores beyond the IBM approved mining plan. After the committee submitted its report, it was referred to the IBM. Now, we have asked IBM to decide on the action to be taken against these miners”, a top official source told Business Standard.
As per the report given by the six-member committee headed by director (mines), there are cases of 87 mines where ore extraction has been beyond the IBM approved Mining Plan.
The excess mining has been in case of iron ore, limestone, mangenese and chromite and there are cases where the miners have raised ores in excess of the IBM approved Mining Plan for a year or so in the last ten years.
The committee was constituted as per the order of the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to look into cases of excessive lifting of minerals by the miners and recommend the imposition of penalty on the errant miners.
Earlier, during the monsoon session of the state legislative assembly, the state industries minister Raghunath Mohanty had informed that eight out of 10 mines offered on lease to Tata Steel in Orissa by the state government had mined beyond the IBM approved mining plan during the last ten years.
The mines of Tata Steel which have recorded mineral production in excess of the IBM approved plan are Joda East Iron Ore Mines, Manmora Manganese Mines, Katamati Iron Ore Mines, Guruda Tiringpahad Manganese Mines, Bamebari Manganese Mines, Joda West Manganese Mines, Sukinda Chromite Mines and Malda Manganese Mines.
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Officials of Tata Steel, had however, clarified that their mining was regularized by IBM.
Mohanty had also informed during the assembly session that the state government owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) was among the four other firms operating in the Joda-Barbil belt in Keonjhar district to have extracted minerals beyond the IBM approved mining plan.
Apart from OMC, the three other private miners were GSI Pvt Ltd, Narayani Sons and B D Agarwal. The overall excess production from these four firms has been worked out to be around 4.4 million tonnes from 2002-03 till the end of 2009-10 and the market value of this excess production stands at about Rs 954 crore.