The road construction work in the Naxal infested Koraput district has been hit hard with the district administration stopping the stone quarrying by ARSS Infrastructure Projects, the contractors for the road projects and sending a show cause notice to the company for alleged violation of Orissa Mining and Minerals Concession Rules (OMMC).
"It is an action taken within the framework of Orissa government rules. The company has violated OMMC norms prompting the district administration to stop its quarrying work,” Sachin R Jadhav, collector, Koraput told Business Standard.
The showcase notice included questions like non-payment of royalty fees for the stone quarrying and exploiting materials beyond stipulated limit.
The legal notice was sent by the Koraput sub-collector few days ago and the work has been stopped since last 10 days. The district administration maintained that ARSS need to pay Rs 59 lakh as royalty fee.
Meanwhile, the company, through a release, said, it had got the quarrying rights on the basis of an auction conducted by the state government. As the company has paid the auction money to the government, it need not pay any royalty, the release claimed.
The company further said that it has so far paid nearly Rs 1 crore in terms of temporary permits to various subdivisions and tehsils of Koraput. It also said the real problem was not the payment of royalty but some 'conflict' between Koraput Sub-collector and Laxmipur Tehsildar, which is why the district administration is halting the road construction work in the name of rules violation and clearances.
The Koraput collector, however, denied any such uneasiness between the two officials.
