In their joint endeavour to combat cross border transport of illegally mined ore, the district level task forces on mining of Orissa and Jharkhand will meet once in two months.
It has been decided to share all relevant data on mining including ore raised, despatch figures, lessees who have been issued transport permits at this meeting. Besides, the meeting will discuss the surveillance activities taken up by the respective task forces.
"The decision to share information between the two task forces was taken at the first meeting of the inter-state coordination committee held in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by home secretary of the Jharkhand. It has also been decided to strengthen surveillance at inter-state check gates”, said a top official source.
The state government has constituted district level committees at Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj to monitor illegal mining activities besides the state level enforcement squad on mining.
Earlier, the Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written to his Jharkhand counterpart, emphasizing on the need to have joint monitoring of illegal mining operation in both the states.
The Jharkhand government had accepted the proposal.
It may be noted police has registered 466 cases and arrested 1495 people in connection with illegal mining from different mining sectors of Orissa in the August-December period of 2011.
As many as 349 persons have been charge sheeted while 562 vehicles were seized for involvement in illegal mining activities.
Taken together, the state and district level task forces have seized 256519 tonnes of iron ore and 9520 tonnes of manganese during this period, said an official source familiar with the development.
