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Even as states have committed to carrying out auctioning of 106 mineral blocks during the current financial year, they have sought the Union mines ministry’s intervention to expedite environment clearance for mining and exploration.
Sources in the mines ministry told Business Standard that Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh said that e-auction of 17 mineral blocks had to be deferred due to the insufficient number of applications in initial bids.
This was due to the quantity and grade of ore, quality of the mineralisation studies, land ownership pattern, general dull market scenario, and restrictive end-use conditions imposed by various states in the bidding documents.
Odisha, which has completed auctioning of the iron-ore block and identified more blocks of limestone, iron ore and bauxite, cited problems in getting environment and forest clearance to expedite auctioning.
Punjab said the inordinate delays in getting green clearance were impacting the auctioning as well as starting of mining operations. The state government appealed to the Union mines ministry to organise an urgent meeting with the environment ministry to sort out the issue.
Punjab’s neighbour Haryana and Uttar Pradesh also pressed for early environment and forest clearance. They cited the difficulty in auctioning of minor mineral leases due to litigation in various courts and delays in obtaining of environmental clearance.
Nagaland emphasised the need for financial support from the Centre for exploration.
Odisha also made a strong case for strengthening the Geological Survey of India and Mineral Exploration Corporation of India (MECL) to step up exploration work.
On its part, the mines ministry pitched for a tripartite agreement among the state governments, MECL and National Mineral Exploration Trust to expedite exploration of the geologically potential areas. Such an agreement has already been executed with Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
