The Odisha High Court has issued notices to the state and union government over the controversial deemed extension clause of Mineral Concession Rule (MCR), 1960, which allows miners to operate their mines even after the lease expiry under special cases.
The High Court, admitting a petition filed by Biswajit Mohanty to strike down the clause, has issued notices to state and union government. It has also issued an interim order saying that miners cannot operate the mines under the deemed extension clause without the leave of the court.
“The HC has issued notices to the state and Union government over the deemed extension clause. It has also said that miners cannot operate under deemed provision without the leave of the court,” said Jayant Das, pleading the case on behalf of the petitioner.
Under Section 24 A clause 6 of MCR, if a miners has applied for lease renewal a year before the lease expiry and the state government fails to expedite renewal applications within due date, then the miner will be considered to be operating the mine under extension of lease validity. The petitioner said that many miners are operating under this provisions with the connivance of state government officials and in some cases the deemed extension period goes beyond 20 years after lease expiry. He has put the number of mines operating under such provisions at 200. The state government, however, has admitted that about 50 such mines are currently working before the Central Empowered committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court to verify illegal mining cases across the country. Out of 50 such mines, most of the mines, which do not have any end-use industry, have been asked to halt operations until their leases get renewed. Others, having captive industry have been directed to produce minerals only as per their captive use as per a departmental resolution of state Steel and Mines Department in October. Earlier, Opposition leader and Union Minister Srikant Jena had accused that the state government is deliberately sitting over lease renewal applications and is letting the miners excavate minerals without any lawful authority. He had said that if all such mines were allowed to operate under state-run miner Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) then the state exchequer would have gained about Rs two trillion rupees.
