BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday informed the Orissa High Court about its decision to extend leases of three more mines under the provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015.
The three mines whose lease period will be extended are RP Sao, HG Pandya and Orissa Manganese and Minerals (OMM) of Adhunik Group.
The inter-departmental committee on mines, headed by Development Commissioner U N Behera, had examined the status of 11 closed iron ore mines in the State and the feasibility of their reopening.
Though the committee found that none of these mines had statutory clearances to operate and all of them were non-captive mines, it had reportedly recommended to the State Government to consider the case of five mines whose mining operation was suspended due to lack of statutory clearances.
“After scrutiny of mines recommended by the inter-departmental committee, the State Government decided to extend the lease period of three mines and this was informed to the High Court,” Minister of State for Steel and Mines Prafulla Kumar Mallick told this paper.
The cases which were not considered by the Government included mines of DC Jain, Narayani Sons Private Limited, Kalinga Mining Corporation, Tarini Minerals and a few of OMM Limited.
These 11 mines were among the over 40 petitioners who moved the Orissa High Court seeking permission to resume mining operation. Though the High Court in its December 2012 order had asked the Government to dispose of all the applications pending for renewal of mining lease within three months, the latter took more than two years to honour the court order.
On April 18, the State Government had extended the lease period of 26 mines and issued orders to the companies to execute supplementary lease deeds within three months following approval of the recommendations by the inter-departmental committee.
The inter-departmental committee on mining had recommended to the State Government on April 4 for extension of lease period of 26 closed mines in the State, which had not violated lease terms. The 26 mines were closed following a Supreme Court order in May last year.
Official sources said disposal of mining lease renewal application is getting delayed due to the Ministry of Environment and Forest guideline, which categorically states that all operating mines must have full forest diversion clearance in order to get renewal of mine lease permission.
The State Government had received 323 applications for mine lease renewal of which 135 had been rejected by the Steel and Mines Department.