Odisha mining: SC to pass interim order

The Supreme Court today indicated it will pass an interim order on a plea for stopping illegal mining activities in Odisha and the priotity before it would be to halt 40 out of 56 iron ore mines operating under deemed-renewed leases.
However, a green bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik, said it was not in favour of a blanket ban on mining but possibly pass an interim ban on 40 iron ore mine lease which are identified by apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) as operating as under the provision of "deemed renewed" leases after expiry of their lease period.

The order by the bench, also comprising justices S S Nijjar and F M I Kalifulla, was reserved after perusing the interim report submitted by the CEC that spelt out the status of leases and approvals of miners in Odisha.
The CEC said in its interim report that a large number of mining leases in the state had been operational long after the expiry of the lease period and 40 such leases included those of Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, operating under the deemed approved norms.
The CEC said there were 187 iron ore and manganese mines in Odisha and out of these 56 were functional while 131 mining leases do not have required statutory approvals or their leases have lapsed and are not operational.

The report by the CEC also said that out of the 131 mines, 102 were without either forest clearances or environmental clearances and were hence suspended and classified as non-working leases.
Further, out of the working 56 iron ore mines only 16 had lease deeds executed in their favour and the rest 40 leases expired and are operating as deemed approved.
The CEC informed the bench that Odisha government had said that the renewal application of miners were under "various stages of examination" and in some cases "in-principle" decision to grant renewal has been taken but follow up actions are under process.