With applications for renewal of mining leases (RML) piling up at different levels, the state steel & mines department has decided to frame a policy for lease renewal to expedite disposal of such cases.
“The RML policy is aimed at expeditious and efficient disposal of RML applications. The policy will cover all applicants for mine lease renewal including those currently working under deemed extension,” said a top official source.
For mines operating under deemed extension, the policy will have provisions to ensure that all mining laws including Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act-1957 and Mineral Concession Rules-1960 are followed in letter and spirit.
The state has taken a leaf out of the Karnataka government which was the first state to introduce a new mining policy by which fresh leases and renewals in respect of iron ore mines were given only if the lessee had proposal of value addition within the state.
Asked if the Orissa government would emulate the Karanataka example, the official said, “It is too early to comment as the proposed policy is still at a conceptual stage.”
The state steel & mines department has so far disposed of around 70 applications for RML and is committed to overcome pendency in such applications at the earliest.
More than 200 RML applications are still pending at different levels. Meanwhile, 51 lessees are operating their mines under deemed extension. Those operating under deemed extension include Tata Steel, Ferro Alloys Corporation Ltd (FACOR), Essel Mining & Industries Ltd Mid-East Integrated Steel, Patnaik Minerals Ltd, R P Sao, Rungta Mines and OCL India among others.
The steel & mines department has rebuffed RML cases of Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys-IMFA, B C Sahu, Basudev Pradhan, K K Das, K K Agrawal, Keonjhar Minerals Ltd, Pravash Chandra Agrawal, B K Mohanty, R C Das, Neelachal Refractories, P R Jain, Pratap Chandra Mohanty, Prabir Ghose, Jyoti Parmanik, D M Minerals and Shah Refractories to name a few.
A special cell has been constituted within the department for disposal of RML applications. The decision to form the RML cell was prompted by the huge volume of pending cases and the inordinate delay in clearing them.
The cell is monitoring the disposal and processing of cases by the concerned officers of the department. Besides, the cell is also coordinating with the office of the Mines Directorate. On digitization of mine lease boundaries, the official said, of the total of 186 iron ore and manganese ore mines in the state, mine digitization work has been completed for over 160 mines.
