The Justice M B Shah Commission of enquiry, which is visiting Orissa on December 7, will among other things scrutinize the status of all 188 iron ore and manganese ore mines in the state, check whether lessees have valid mining plans and also examine violations of mining and forest laws by the miners.
“The Shah Commission would be on a three-day visit to the state beginning December 7. The commission is expected to scrutinize all working and suspended iron ore and manganese ore mines. It will also verify if the lessees are operating with valid mining plans or not. Violations of forest laws by miners will also be looked into by the commission,” said a senior official of steel & mines department.
The state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik said, “Earlier, the state government has provided all information related to mining to the Shah commission. We are also ready to provide any further information needed by the commission after its visit to the state. The state government will also facilitate field visits to mines if the commission so desires. We are yet to receive any detailed itinerary regarding the commission's visit.”
The state government had submitted its first report to the commission on May 13 and filed its next reply on June 1 this year. Later on August 10, the commission has sought some additional information on areas like lease wise production, exports, violations detected under Orissa Minerals (Prevention of Theft & Smuggling Rules)- OMPTS-2007 and action taken thereof and the steel & mines department had complied with the same by September-end.
The commission had earlier sent letters to 25 lessees with iron ore and manganese ore leases in the state. However, many of the lessees had not responded due to wrong postal address while two of them had refused to accept the commission's letters.
The two lessees that had refused to accept the letters include the Roida-Sidhamatha manganese ore mines and Roida-D Block manganese ore mines, both belonging to the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) in Keonjhar district.
The other lessees to whom the commission had issued letters include Parulipada manganese ore mines of OMC, Tiring Pahar iron ore and manganese ore mines of OMC, Khandabandh iron ore mines, Manmora manganese ore mines and Katamati iron ore mines, all three of Tata Steel, Bhulbeda iron ore mine of Mineral Trading Syndicate and Baitarani iron ore mines of S Pradhan to name a few.
More recently, the commission had sought information from the steel & mines department on alleged violation of Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act, 1957 and Mineral Concession Rules (MCR)-1960 by Patnaik Minerals Private Ltd in the Joda circle.
