Industries urge Odisha government to formulate a mechanism by June end
Bhubaneswar: Following the High Court’s endorsement of the 50:50 rule, the Odisha based steel units have urged the state government to formulate a suitable mechanism for the 50:50 rule by June end. The Odisha High Court on first week of April has upheld the order of the state government that mandates reservation of half of the iron ore produced.
“ The Hon’ble court’s order is positive sign for the industry. The court has made it clear that the state has the right of pre-emption, and state has the statutory preferential right to purchase the mined mineral against fair market price at the time of preemption, but the court has also asked the government to formulate a proper mechanism within 3 months of the order i.e. by June 30th, 2014, otherwise the order will become invalid. So we have written to the Odisha steel and mines department to formulate a proper mechanism by June 30 so as the local steel industries that are reeling under severe raw material crisis for the last several years, would get raw material regularly and fair market price would be prevailed” said Mr. Vishal Agrawal, MD, VISA Steel and Chairman, Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Odisha Chapter.
He said, it is unfortunate that while the miners are earning super-normal profit for their Iron Ore, the state based steel units are starving for raw material. So a suitable mechanism is very much necessary to prevail fair market price and fair distribution of raw material would be facilitated.
It may be noted that, The Odisha high Court on 2nd of April has upheld the Odisha government order on reserving 50% of mineral produced by the miners. The court has also ordered the state government to formulate a proper mechanism within 3 months. However, the state government is yet to start the process to formulate any mechanism.
Mr P.L. Kandoi, President of All Odisha Steel Federation has also admitted that though one month has already passed since the high court order no meeting has been convened by the state steel and mines department for deliberation on formulation of the mechanism.
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