In its Endeavour to curb
transport of illegally mined ore, the state steel and mines department has
sought details of ore export from five ports in and around Orissa.
The ports are Haldia Port Trust
in West Bengal, Vishakhapatnam Port Trust, Kakinada Port and Gangavaram Port in
Andhra Pradesh and the Dhamra port in Orissa.
In a letter to these port
authorities, Manoj Ahuja, steel & mines secretary, has called for
submission of information related to ore exports to the state director of mines
at least once every fortnight for verification of the data with the transit
permits issued by the mining offices of the state.
Ahuja has pointed out that the
decision to share information on ore exports by the ports was taken at a high
level meeting convened by the Centre last year to streamline the movement of
consignments by rail and road.
It may be noted that the Union
Ministry of Shipping in 2010 had asked all major port trusts of India to adopt
measures in line with the measures adopted by Paradip Port Trust (PPT) to check
illegal export of iron ore.
Under the guidelines of the
ministry, the ports must check that a plot holder or an allotted of iron ore is
only authorized to move iron ore to the plot by road and rail and the railway
authorities are informed accordingly.
Unauthorized transportation or
shifting of iron ore inside the port is prohibited and in case of violation the
allotment has to be cancelled. Iron ore received by rail in respect of a
particular exporter is verified as per Railway Receipt (RR) and the cargo is
unloaded only on verification of RR.
Similarly, the ore coming by road
is verified with the transit pass (TP) and weighment challans and photo copies
of the challans and the TPs are to be preserved by the port for subsequent
correlation with the copies of royalty paid transit pass issued by the state
mining offices.
In case of discrepancies in the
weight of cargo as shown by the TPs and challans, the trucks should not be
allowed to enter the port.
If the net weight of the iron ore
carried by a truck exceeds the admissible weight to be carried by the
particular vehicle, the port must inform the concerned state transport
department for action against the erring vehicle for overloading.
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