State to raise illegal mining issues with Centre

BHUBANESWAR: Alleging inaction by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) in dealing with illegal mining, the State Government on Wednesday said it would soon bring the matter to the notice of the Centre. Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik told mediapersons that he would soon write a letter on the issue to the secretary of the Union Mining Ministry. IBM is not providing support to the State Government in taking action against errant mine operators, he said. Despite the State’s Steel and Mines Department writing time and over again to IBM seeking information on excess mining by some errant officials, a response from IBM is still awaited.   While the State Government’s task force had identified 104 lessees for excess ore extraction from mines in the last 10 years, IBM has suspended the mining licence of only 42 lessees. The State Government has no power to suspend licences for excess production, while IBM can take action against them under the provision of the Mineral Conservation and Development Rule (MCDR), 1988, sources said.  IBM also did not respond to the State Government’s queries on the exact volume of excess mineral production by erring mines, which were taking advantage of the situation, he said.  Sources said IBM identified violation under different sections of MCDR in 580 mines from 2000-01 to 2005-06 in the State. IBM suspended licence of one mine each in 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 while violations were detected in 298 mines during that period. When issues relating to mining scam hit headlines around two years back, IBM suspended operation of 10 mines in 2009 and 29 mines in 2010, while it detected violation in 38 mines during the same time.