Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided that a sub-committee will be set up within the state level task force on steel and mines to recommend production limit for Joda and Koira sector in 2015-16.
“The task force, headed by chief secretary G.C. Pati, has recommended steps including formation of a sub committee to fix limit on the quantity of minerals to be explored and transported from Joda and Koida sectors during a particular period,” said Mines director Deepak Mohanty after a meeting of the task force.
The sub-committee, to be set up in 20 days, will have experts from departments of Forest and Environment, Steel and Mines, State Pollution Control Board, directors of Mines and Environment. The sub-committee will decide how much minerals need to be explored and transported from a particular area.
Though the government had last year capped mining and transportation of iron ore and manganese from Joda mining circle at 44 MnT, actually only 17.2 MnT of minerals could be mined and transported due to different reasons. Similarly, only 10.5 MnT of iron ore could be mined from Koida mining circle against the capping limit of 13 MnT, Mohanty said.
This time, however, the State government feels that the mineral production needs to be expedited after implementation of the new MMDR Act.
Leave a Reply