"As per the Supreme Court appointed central empowered committee (CEC)'s directions, the government will permit A-Category lease-holders of eight mines to resume mining from August after they secure clearances from the IBM to produce six million tonnes of iron ore per annum. It will augment supply of iron ore for e-auction," he told reporters here.
He said "we will have to subsequently re-open more mines in B & C categories to increase the production to 18 million tonnes per annum.
The lease holders will also have to secure approval of the Central Ministry of environment and forestry to comply with the Reclamation and Resettlement (RR) programme in the three districts as directed by the Supreme Court, Srinivasa said.
The forest bench of the apex court had partially lifted the ban on April 20 in three districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur with strict conditions. The bench had banned mining activity across the state in July-August 2011 following multi-crore mining scam.
With the top court fixing a cap on production of iron ore in the state at 30 million tonnes per annum and the state-run National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) permitted to produce 12 million tonnes per annum from its mines in the Bellary district, the state government has filed an affidavit with the CEC to permit mining an additional 12 million tonnes per annum by mining leases under B & C categories.
The eight mines under A-category with each holding 50 hectare of mining area, were cleared by the CEC as they have not been found indulging in illegal mining activity and were not mentioned in the Karnataka Lokayukta reports prepared by former Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde in December 2008 and July 2011 after investigations by its anti-graft team.
