An inter-departmental committee recommends 26 mines to Odisha government for resumption of operations under new MMDR (Development & Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015. The 26 mines include 4 captive mines of Tata.
Inter departmental committee has recommended 26 mines to state government for reopening under the provisions of the new MMDR (Development & Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015. However, the final decision will be taken by state government soon. The industry is hopeful that mines may re-start operations by the end of this month.
Inter departmental committee was formed by the Odisha government to consider the cases on extension of mining leases under the new MMDR Act.
The decision to recommend the reopening of the 26 closed mines was taken at an inter-departmental meeting chaired by Development Commissioner U N Behera at the state secretariat. The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Steel & Mines department, Director, Mines, Director Geology, Secretary, Law, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), officials of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and officials of Odisha Remote Sensing Applications Centre (ORSAC).
The 26 mines that have been recommended include 18 Iron ore and Manganese mines, operations of which had been suspended in May last year, following Supreme Court’s direction.
Since the mining ordinance has done away with the concept of renewal of lapsed leases, the panel will examine the eligibility of the mines for grant of extension.
Extension of lease period for captive mines till 2030 and for non captive mines till 2020 has been recommended in accordance with the provisions of the amendments made in the MMDR Act. Thereafter, the mines will be auctioned.
On 1st Apr’15, MoEF extended forest clearance for 82 mines across India under MMDR. Odisha based mines that received the forest clearance under Forest Act are Kathpal Chromite Mine of Ms. Ferro Alloys Corporation, Kamal Jeet Singh Ahluwalia, Ms Kaypee Enterprises, Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia, Patnaik Minerals, Sri Prabodh Mohanty, Tarani Minerals, M/s Kalinga Mining Corporation, Dr. Sarojini Pradhan, D.C. Jain, M/s Patnaik Minerals, M/s Tarini Minerals and K C Pradhan.
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