Bhubaneswar: The Shah Commission report has alleged that Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), the central regulator of mines has helped to smoothen the process of illegal mining in state of Odisha. In volume -2 of report, commission has strongly criticized IBM and raised question mark on operation of regulator.
The report said that IBM has changed mining plans in 85 cases without any verification. Even in some cases it has changed mining plans twice or more and in some other cases the change has been done retrospectively.
The report said that out of 192 mining leases, 94 mining leases of Iron ore & Manganese ore are not having Environmental Clearance. Out of these, 94 leases 55 leases of Iron ore have been extracting minerals from way back in 1994-95 to 2011-12 without Environment clearance. The lessees include state owned OMC’s Balda-Palsa-Jajanga mines, Essel mining (Unchabali), KJS ahluwalia (Panduliposi), MGM (Ganua) and Serajuddin (Guruda). Similarly, 25 leases of Manganese ore have been extracting Manganese without Environmental clearance.
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