The two-member team of Justice MB Shah Commission of enquiry on Monday advised State Government to make a separate survey of the non-lease areas in the mineral rich Keonjhar and Sundargarh district and prepare maps to check illegal mining outside the leased mines areas.
“The State Government teams making fresh physical verification of the boundary of lease hold mines are not capturing the adjacent non-lease areas. That mineral bearing portion should also be captured in the map as per the Commission’s guidelines,” Biswajit Mishra, a team member of the Commission, told mediapersons after visiting the mine areas in Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts.
Mapping of the non-lease areas will prevent illegal mining to a great extent, he said adding, encroachment, if any, in the mining plan can be accessed only after completion of all physical verification.
The Commission’s team told State Government that they found over burden dumping activities in the bordering areas of the two mines, which were not covered during physical verification. Meanwhile, the Government teams making fresh survey has completed physical verification of 29 out of 42 mines which have deposited fund for resurvey, Mohanty said. After three-day field visit, the team comprising Mishra, an IFS officer of Karnataka cadre and Janardan Prasad, senior geologist, Gujarat unit of Geological Survey of India, had a wrap up meeting with senior officers including Steel and Mines Secretary Rajesh Verma.
Earlier in the day, the two team members had a first hand knowledge on the superimposition of the cadastral maps with the Google earth map and the difference between the two maps at Odisha Remote Sensing Application Centre (ORSAC) here, chief executive of centre AK Mohapatra told this paper. Since there was a mismatch in original map with the digital maps, the team discussed the problems with ORSAC scientists.
ORSAC will prepare a draft report indicating the discrepancies in original map with digital maps and submit the report to the commission in first week of June for its views. Meanwhile, State Government has decided to have a meeting with five teams engaged in physical verification of boundary of mines on May 31 and ask team to verify non-lease areas adjacent to mines areas.