Bhubaneswar: The M.B.Shah Commission inquiry will resume its hearing on the alleged violation of rule 37 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, from Saturday, at Ahmadabad.
On the first day, the panel is scheduled to hear the cases of as many as 15 mines of 8 lease holders including OMC, Indrani Pattnaik, KJS Ahluwalia mines, Sirajuddin mines and R.P.Sao mines.
On behalf of the state government Mines Secretary, Advocate General and Supreme Court lawyer U.V.Lalit will present the position of the state government.
On his last visit in the last week of February, Justice Shah had pointed out that there should be a clear policy on rule 37 violation.
“The rule must make it clear that who should be held responsible for violation”, he said, while responding to the objection raised by Senior Counsel Ram Jethmalani appearing on behalf of Thriveni Earth Movers, a mining contractor.
Mr Jethmalani argued that on the issue of excess raising of minerals the original lease holder should be hold responsible, not the subcontractor.
It may be noted that the rule-37 of the MCR deals with the issue of subcontracting of mining lease area.
After the question raised by justice Shah, the state government has constituted a sub committee to look into the alleged violation of rule 37 of the MCR at 1960 and on the basis of the report of the sub-committee cases had been registered against 8 mining firms.
However, the miners had appealed in the revision authority (Mining Tribunal) complaining that the sub-committee has not been constituted as per the law.
The revision authority in its order has said that government cannot proceed further in the case till the issue of the sub-committee settled.
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