Bhubaneswar: The
M.B.Shah Commission of enquiry for illegal mining will held a separate hearing
on rule-37 violation on 16th of March at its Ahmadabad office. The
rule-37 of the MCR deals with the issue of subcontracting of mining lease area.
On the first day of
hearing Justice Shah pointed out that there should be a clear policy on rule 37
violation. “The rule must make it clear that who should be held responsible for
violation,“ he said while responding to the objection raised by Senior Counsel Ram
Jethmalani appearing on behalf of Thriveni Earth Movers, a mining contractor. Mr. Jethmalani argued that on the issue of excess raising of minerals the original
lease holder should be hold responsible, not the subcontractor.
On the other
hand senior lawyer A.B.Deewan appearing behalf of Serajuddin Mines also raised
question on rule-37.
On the first day
about 15 miners including OMC, Tata Steel, Essel mining, KJS Ahlualia, Indrani
Pattnaik and Serajuddin, K.P.Enterprises, R.P.Sao, Kalinga Mining
Corporation, P.K.S.Ahluwalia, D.R.Pattnaik, Tarini minerals were asked to
clarify their stand regarding the violation of various rules of the MMDR and
MCR acts.
The miners
expressed their objection over the Google maps and the satellite maps of the
mining area. Appearing on behalf of P.K.S.Ahluwalia, senior counsel Gopala
Subramanyam said, “for determining encroachment the commission used inaccurate Google
maps and superimposed it on the revenue maps to justify illegal mining. Similarly,
differential global positioning system (DGPS) maps prepared by the Odisha
Remote Sensing Application Centre (ORSAC) are also not correct and hence a
fresh physical verification should be done.†He also demanded fresh
determination of the lease boundaries of the mining area.
Responding to
this Justice Shah said that the commission do not have adequate manpower to
determine the mining lease area and for this he has to rely on the state
government map.
Reported by Tapan Moharana
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