Coming under attack from the office of the Accountant General (AG) for its inaction on illegal extraction and excess lifting of iron ore by a lessee, the state steel & mines department has decided to get the matter scrutinized by its audit cell.
Gandhamardhan Sponge Iron Ltd is in the dock for excess raising of 2.51 million tonnes of iron ore at its Putulipani iron ore mines spread over 100.16 hectares in Keonjhar district during April 2004 to August 2009. The AG observed that in respect of this glaring violation, the lessee was liable to pay Rs 216.69 crore for extracting ore beyond the approved quantity.
Stating that details of statutory clearances in respect of the lessee was not made available to its office, the AG has urged the steel & mines department to review the legality of raising and despatch of minerals by the lessee for recovery of cost of excess ore.
"The steel & mines department will ask Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) to take action against the violation. We will also see what can be done at our end", said steel & mines secretary Manoj Ahuja.
Besides raising excess ore, Gandhamardhan Sponge Iron Ltd was also found to be illegally running is mines from 1998-99 to 2003-04 without any approved mining plan.
"We noticed from the information collected in August 2011 from the regional controller of mines, IBM-Bhubaneswar that the mining plan in respect of Putulipani iron ore mines was approved for 1993-98 and thereafter the first scheme of mining was only submitted and approved in 2004 for the period from 2004-05 to 2008-09. Thus, it is evident that the above mines were in operation without any approved scheme between 1998-99 to 2003-04. However, no penal action as deemed fit under the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules-1988 was taken by the IBM. Despite that the mining operations were allowed by the department for that period", said a statement of the AG office.
The mining operation of Putulipani iron ore mines has been suspended from October 2009.
