Odisha's mines department today issued a show cause notice and slapped a penalty of Rs 20,169 crore on Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) on charges of violating environment norms and other regulations.
"We have served the notice and asked MCL to pay the penalty for violating environment laws, mining plan and operating the mines without the state government's consent," Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty told PTI.
Mohanty said MCL has been asked to reply to the show cause notice within 30 days from today.
Sources said the notice was issued in pursuant to the judgment of the Supreme Court directing the State to impose a 100 per cent penalty on illegal mining leaseholders.
Meanwhile, sources said the forest and environment department has been verifying if MCL has undertaken activities in forest areas without permission.
Earlier in September this year, the state government had issued notices to 152 mining leaseholders of iron ore for allegedly engaging in illegal mining and not abiding by the environment norms.
Of the 152 leaseholders, 47 mines were located in the Koida Mining Circle (KMC) in Sundargarh. The leaseholders are asked to pay the penalty by December 31, 2017.
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