With
the iron ore production of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has come down
drastically in the last five years, the All Odisha Steel Federation (AOSF) has again
questioned the government's decision to allocate more mines to the state owned
miner. Rather the steel lobby group has urged the government to consider allocating
mines on a consortium basis to user industries.
“Presently
OMC has 26 iron ore mines out of which only 3 are in operation. The remaining
23 mines are closed for some reason or other. Now, as per the govt notification,
all the new as well as surplus areas after RML will be given to OMC. This will
lead to so many burdens on OMC as it does not have the required infrastructure
to handle and operate so many mines all together. This will again result in
poor and inadequate supply of iron ore to the existing units besides increasing
the rates for their inefficiencies” said Mr.P.L.Kandoi, President, AOSF.
“As
a long term remedy OMC must be directed to have JV/long term purchase
agreements with all the existing Odisha Units. Also the govt. may also consider
for allocating the mines on a consortium basis”, he added.
As per reports already published in 'SteelMint', iron
ore production of OMC has come down by 50% in the
last 5 years. While it was producing 7.8 million tonne iron ore in 2008-09 it
has come down to only 3 million tonnes in 2012-13.
The chief secretary is scheduled to take up
a meeting on the issue of “second and subsequent renewal of mining leases” today afternoon, which will be attended by the steel and mines secretary Rajesh
Varma,OMC CMD Saswat Mishra among others.
On October 3, the state government in its
resolution has decided to limit iron ore mining for captive consumption only and
the remaining mines/areas would be allocated to OMC.
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