A mining industry entity, the Federation of Indian Minerals Industries (FIMI), has filled petition in Supreme Court to stop e-auctions of iron ore and manganese ore in Karnataka.
As per the apex court 2013, the court had ordered to sale all the respective material in Karnataka via e-auctions conducted by Monitoring Committee due to illegal mining. A committee named CEC (Central Enpowered Committee) would be monitoring all the e-auctions.
FIMI contends that now, e-auctions is not in the interest for minerals sales. As of now, circumstances have changed and sales via only e-auctions method should be removed.
In 2003, inorder to stop illegal mining in the state, the case was filed by non-profit Samaj Parivartana Samudaya against large scale depletion of forest area in Karnataka. It was by then, iron ore production was halted in the state.
However, in 2012, by looking towards the illegal mining on large scale, CEC recommended sales through e-auctions is the only temporary method and needs reconsideration in two years.However, in April 2014, the apex court have extended the tenure period for 1 year.
Now, as the above mentioned period is completed, FIMI plea that e-auctioning method should be removed completely.
In addition, the apex court in April 2013, had also ordered Karnataka to cancel 51 C-category leases for involved in illegal mining and re-allot them to end users through a transparent bidding mechanism. Karnataka in Jan’ 6 announced an e-auction of 11 of the 51 C- category mines.
Currently, the apex court had set up a temporary CEC till the government establishes a statutory body mandated under the Environmental Protection Act to monitor and ensure compliance of the court’s orders concerning forest and wildlife. However, the court has not yet specified a date for the next hearing.
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