The State Government on Monday decided to request the High Court to grant some more time to clear all pending cases pertaining to renewal of mining leases. The decision was taken at an inter-departmental review meeting chaired by Development Commissioner J K Mohapatra.
In its December 21, 2012 order, the High Court had asked the State Government to dispose of all the applications pending for renewal of mining leases within three months. However, the Government sought three more months to clear the pending applications by June 15.
“It will not be possible to clear all the applications in view of the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on February 1, 2013,” Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty told mediapersons. The MoEF guideline categorically stated that all the operating mines must have full forest diversion clearance in order to get renewal of mine lease permission, he said. Of the 59 operational mines in the State, 55 have partial forest diversion clearance.
The State Government had received 323 applications for mine lease renewal.