Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has issued notices to several miners for producing iron ore below the Environment Clearance (EC) limit. The mines department has asked for explanation from the lessees on reasons for low production and not taking up production as per the permitted levels.
In 28 Jan’16, the government had held up the mining permit of Serajuddin Mines’ Balda mine. “The permit was revoked in the first week of this month. Lower production of iron ore has adversely hit the royalty collection in the state. We may take punitive action if the miners continue to produce below the EC limits”, said an official at the department of mines (Odisha).
Presently, 47 iron ore mines are operating in Odisha out of a total of 143 leases. The combined EC limit of these 47 leases is 156 MnT- 48 MnT for captive mines and 108 MnT for merchant miners. But these miners have dispatched about 74.5 MnT of iron ore which is only 47% of the EC limit.
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