Bhubaneswar: On Friday, The Supreme Court of India granted 2 months more to the Odisha government for the decision on the 18 mines those are awaiting second and subsequent lease renewal.
As many as 26 mines, including these 18 merchant mines were closed on the basis of the SC’s order on 16 May’14. However, the state government had allowed 8 mines to operate through an express order. But, there’s no decision taken on the rest of the 18 mines. The state government had requested for more time to examine the eligibility of these mines for the renewal and it was subsequently granted time till 20th of Feb’15 the court.
However, recently the state had requested again for some more time in view of the changes in rule after enactment of the MMDR (Amendment) Ordinance in January this year. In its latest petition filed earlier this month, the state government mentioned that it had taken enough steps to comply with the SC order and had even sent the show cause notice to leaseholders for cancellation of their leases. However, the new provisions in the MMDR Amendment Ordinance had tied its hands.
In the Mining Ordinance that came into effect on 12 Jan’15, the provision for renewal of mining lease is done away with. Instead, all leases awaiting renewal were automatically allowed to operate till 2020 in case of merchant mines and upto 2030 for industrial users with captive mines, as per Section 8 (A) 5 and 8 (A) 6 of the Ordinance, subject to fulfillment of lease conditions.
Leave a Reply