Rajasthan HC stays acquisition of land for captive mining

The Rajasthan High Court today stayed the acquisition of land in five villages around Bhilwara city by the state government for a captive mining by a private company.
Justice R S Rathore of the Jaipur bench of the high court passed the order on a PIL and a number of writ petitions filed by villagers and said, "The state government is directed not to proceed with the said acquisition till further orders."
The villagers claimed that "the land is being acquired in violation of the Land Revenue Act and the Mines and Mineral Concession Rules".
"The land belong to farmers and it can be put to mining use only with the consent from the land holders... But the land is being forcibly acquired," said Abhinav Sharma, counsel for the petitioners.

The mining lease was allotted to JSL in 2010-2011 on the ground that it has technical collaboration with JSPL owned by Naveen Jindal, the counsel said.
The petitioners have sought cancellation of the lease and a CBI inquiry into the allotment process.

Meanwhile, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) filed its final report stating that the mines do not contain gold but 2.4 per cent pure iron.
The report also put a question mark on earlier surveys which stated abundant availability of copper, lead and zinc in the area.
The report also states that the main mineral available in the area is iron.

The Centre also filed its reply, stating that the relaxation has been granted to the firm only on the basis of the recommendations made by the state government and GSI reports.