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Mine owners and the Odisha government are on a collision course yet again, this time over non-payment of net present value (NPV) of forest land falling under the lease area.
Peeved over mounting NPV dues, the state forest department has issued clear instructions to the divisional forest officers (DFOs) to initiate cases against the defaulting lessees.
“Since deposit of the due amount of NPV of forest land of the mining lease forms a part of statutory clearances for operating the said mine and non-payment of NPV for entire forest land of the lease also amounts to violations of orders of the Supreme Court, immediate action may be taken for initiating certificate cases against the mining lessees for recovery of NPV from them”, D Biswal, additional secretary (forest & environment), wrote to the concerned DFOs.
Separately, the department has also instructed the erring mine lessees to immediately deposit their respective NPV dues in the appropriate account of Adhoc- CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) in consultation with the DFO concerned.
In the list of defaulters are top miners like Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL). Two state government controlled firms- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Idcol) are also saddled with NPV dues.
SAIL has not paid the NPV for forest land coming within its Harmath iron and manganese mines under Keonjhar division.
The Keonjhar DFO had raised a demand of Rs 76.79 crore on the company.
MCL has pending NPV dues for two of its mines- Bansudhara east open cast mining project (Sundargarh) and Balanda open cast project (Angul). The coal miner has to deposit Rs 4.75 crore for each mine.
The biggest defaulter is state run miner OMC that needs to pay off NPV dues for its 11 mines with deposits of iron ore, manganese, chromite and china clay. OMC's NPV dues have mounted to Rs 301.95 crore. The concerned mines are- SGBK iron mines, Sidhamatha iron and manganese mines, Roida D manganese mines, Boula chromite mines, Banipanka chromite mines, Bangur chromite mines, Rantha iron ore mines, Saruabil Sukrangi chromite mines, Balipada Mahagiri chromite mines, Dumira china clay mines and Nishikhal manganese mines.
Another state PSU- Idcol has defaulted in payment of Rs 6.27 crore as NPV of forest land coming within its limestone mines at Banjipali in Bargarh division.
Earlier, the forest department had urged the mines directorate to take steps for suspension of mining operations in cases where full NPV is not paid. NPV is paid for diversion of forest land for mining activities.
