Bhubaneswar: Odisha may defer auction of the 7 mineral blocks slated to be auctioned this financial year, for 2-3 months owing to delay in getting exploration reports. These 7 blocks include 5 iron ore, 1 lime stone and 1 Graphite block.
The state government was planning to auction these blocks in the months of September-October. But due to delay in getting exploration reports from MECL (Mineral Exploration corporation ltd.), the state government is planning to defer the auction to the months of November-December or so.
MECL, a central PSU which had been entrusted to carry out exploration work for these blocks was to submit the report by March to Odisha government, however it has not done so yet.
“As many as 7 mineral blocks are in the pipeline for auction this financial year. However, some block to be auctioned will be deferred from September- October to December as the MECL has deferred the completion of exploration, the reports of which were committed in March. CMD/MECL informed that 1 report will be given in June and rest in July/August, said Deepak Mohanthy, Director of mines, Odisha.
As per government of India directive exploration reports are necessary before putting a mineral block for auction. The Central Government issued the directive in 2010 which mentioned that all the existing leases have to be brought to an exploration level of G2 or G1 in 5 years’ time.
Odisha has so far auctioned 5 mineral blocks and annulled 2 blocks. Auction process is on for another 3 blocks. The state government has collected about INR 41,782 Crores of revenue from these auctions.
Leave a Reply