Bhubaneswar: While the Shah Commission report is yet to be made public officially, the fourth part of the enquiry report on illegal mining has been leaked. As per the report, the commission has said that the miners have done illegal mining by misusing the Rule 24(A) of the Mineral Concession Rules (MCR) 1960 that deals with the deemed renewal of mining leases, when the renewal application is not disposed by the state government within one year of the application.
The report said that total 147, out of 192 Iron ore & Manganese mines have been operating under deemed renewal and the state government has lost huge amounts of revenue as stamp duty. 8 mines had been operating for 15-20 years without lease renewal, 35 mines were operating for 10-15 years, 43 mines operating for 5-10 years and 14 mines were operating for 5 years or less without lease renewal. Most of these mines have been also operating without environmental clearances, which has been made mandatory for mines running under deemed renewal as per the letter of the union mines ministry dated 18 May, 2011.
On the other hand, the state government has also illegally granted temporary work permits several times to the mines seeking lease renewal. Even one Balita Iron ore mines and Inganijharan Iron ore mines were granted 17 temporary work permits.
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