Bhubaneswar :
A two-member team of the Justice M B Shah
Commission will visit Odisha from 20th of this month to conduct
field verification and data analysis of various mines, where physical
verification of lease area has been conducted by the state government. As per
reports the team which includes senior officials, Biswajeet Mishra and Prasad will
come for a three day visit.
It may be noted that several lessees had raised
question on the authenticity of Differential Geographical Positioning System
(DGPS), which was used for demarcation of mining lease boundaries in Odisha,
before the Justice M B Shah Commission inquiring large scale irregularities in
iron ore and manganese mines.
Various mining companies had argued that the DGPS
map prepared by the State Government using the Google Earth Image and based on
the figures of the Base Map prepared manually way back in the 1960s was
not correct. Accordingly, the Justice M B Shah Commission during the hearing in
February, 2013, had allowed physical verification of 44 leasehold areas, said
official sources.
The Department of Steel & Mines (DoSM) has
constituted five teams to go in for physical verification of these mines. Till
date, the physical verification of 19 mines is complete while data analysis of
these mines and file verification of another five mines is going on, said a
senior official of the DoSM.
Physical verification of 12 out of the 20 left out
mines will be taken up soon when eight lessees have not yet deposited the
required amount with the State Government, said the official. This type of
verification of mines were allowed for the mines, the owners of which came
forward to bear the cost of a fresh survey at the rate of Rs.2 lakh per square
kilometer of the mining area, revealed the official.
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