Shah Commission to visit state on December 7.
The state government has asked the forest department to submit details about illegal mining in forest areas by December 3, as part of its monitoring process of this notorious business.
“The details of cases of illegal mining in case of iron ore and manganese ore detected by the Forest Department and action taken thereof may kindly be intimated,” the letter sent from state government to state Principal Chief Conservator of Forest said.
The forest department would cite irregularities committed within and outside of the mines lease hold areas, according to the government order.
The latest order is part of a series of government effort to take stock of the mining trend in the state, ahead of the visit of national level illegal mining investigative agency M B Shah Commission. The Commission members are expected to visit the state on December 7 to conduct on-field probe into allegations of illegal mining at several locations.
In past three weeks, the government has ordered the steel and mines office to investigate irregularities caused by a privet miner, sent show cause notices to 57 mines including several government entity-owned mines for violation of mining and other statutory laws, implemented online registration of ore carrying vehicles and has raided several mines and crushing units over alleged forest rule violations.
Last week, the Public Account Subcommittee of state assembly inspected several government offices in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack and sought details about reports on actual mineral excavation.
The committee is probing the amount of registration charges and stamp duty collected towards mineral raising and will tally the data with the actual amount of mineral raised to find the possible loss to state exchequer. Besides, the government last week sent details to the Central government about the amount of minerals seized from illegal mining both in forest and non-forest areas.
The Shah Commission was scheduled to visit Orissa on November 15, but later put off the visit.
