Center rejects Shah Commission proposal on capping Iron ore production in Odisha. However, Odisha Government seeks excluding captive consumption from annual capping.

While the Shah Commission has recommended the center to cap Iron ore production in Odisha limiting to 55 MnT pa, both the Central and the State Governments have rejected it.

The Central Government has already rejected the idea. The mines ministry while rejecting, has made it clear that any cap on production of Iron ore would be in interest of the industry.

On the other hand, the Odisha Government has gone a step further and has decided to relax the annual production cap of Iron ore in the state. The State Task Force on Saturday has decided to exclude the captive consumption from the annual cap on dispatch of Iron ore from Joda & Koida Circles.

According to experts, this will help out the industries as they are facing tough times. Mines were closing down after the decision taken in the last meeting of Task Force.

As per earlier decision of Task Force, capping of 44 MnT from Joda and 13 MnT from Koida inclusive of dispatch from captive mines, forced some of the mines to close down. Before such a capping it was decided to go for 40 MnT from Joda , 12 MnT from Koida and 20 MnT for captive consumption.

Chief Secretary J K Mohapatra chaired the meeting of State Level Task Force, which reviewed the situation in mineral sector.