List includes OMC, Essel Mining and Idcol.
As many as 12 miners in Orissa have been found to be involved in illegal mining activities in 2009-10. These companies include Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd (OMC), Essel Mining & Industries Ltd, Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Idcol), S N Das Mohapatra Ltd, Indrani Pattnaik Ltd, Ram Bahadur Thakur Ltd, M S Deb, Arjun Ladha, Basanta Kumar Das, OM&M Pvt Ltd, S A Halim and B S Mishra.
This is as per the information provided by the minister for steel & mines Raghunath Mohanty in the state assembly.
OMC has been found guilty of unauthorized encroachment into another lease hold area at its South Kaliapani chromite mines spread over 502.45 hectares in Jajpur district. The company has violated Rule 27 (I) (R) of Mineral Concession Rules of 1960 and also the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.
On detection of these statutory violations, the state government had suspended the mining operations and the suspension order was later revoked on production of encumbrance certificate. The state government is now in the process of serving a showcause notice on this mine.
Similarly, another chromite mine of OMC spread over Kaliapani, Ostopal and Gurjanga in Jajpur district was also found to have violated Rule 27 (I) (R) of Mineral Concession Rules (MCR) of 1960 and Mineral Conservation & Development Rules (MCDR)-1988 by unauthorizedly stacking about 88000 tonnes of chromite in the adjoining Kaliapani lease hold area.
The Directorate of Mines has forwarded a proposal to the state government for issuing a showcause notice to this mine for the violations.
Essel Mining & Industries Ltd was detected of hoarding of mineral and machinery outside the surface right area of its Koira iron ore mines spread over 90.143 hectares in Sundergarh district. Taking note of this violation, the mineral and machinery were seized and mining operations were suspended. However, the suspension order was revoked after obtaining surface right order from the district collector.
Similarly, Idcol has been found to violate Rule 27 (5) of MCR-1960 and some provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation)- MMDR Act of 1957 through dumping of overburden and stacking of mineral beyond lease hold area of its Tailangi-Ostapal chromite mines spread over 65.68 hectares in Sundergarh district. The state government on December 3, 2010 has served a showcause notice of 60 days in respect of violations of lease covenants.
The state government has already issued a showcuse notice on S N Das Mohapatra's manganese mines spread over 36.47 hectares at Kolha-Rudukela in Keonjhar district for violation of Rule 37 (I) of MCR-1960 and some provisions of MMDR Act of 1957. The company had illegally raised 25,274 tonnes of manganese ore, constructed a house and installed a screening plant in the forest area and transferred mineral rights without the permission of the state government.
A showcause notice was issued to Indrani Pattnaik's iron ore mines on December 2, 2010 questioning as to why Rs 1131.72 crore should not be recovered from the mining company.
The miner has been found to be violating the lease covenants by clandestinely selling 0.3 million tonnes of iron ore and illegally raising 2.68 million tonnes of iron ore.
