BHUBANESWAR: Even after eight years of the Supreme Court directing the Odisha government to recover the full cost of the minerals extracted in violation of statutory clearances, a whopping Rs 3,966.34 crore has not been collected from defaulting mining lease holders.
The Steel and Mines department has not taken any effective step to recover the amount from the mining lessees, said the performance audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday.
The CAG audit on the performance of the Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) funds for the year ended March 2022 pointed out serious deficiencies in the management starting from planning to execution of projects.
Following the Supreme Court order to the state government to recover full cost of the minerals (iron ore and manganese) extracted without environment clearance (EC) or forest clearance (FC) or both from defaulting lease holders, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) set up by the apex court assessed the compensation amount to Rs 19,174.38 crore from 131 miners to be recovered retrospectively from 2000-01 and in its January 17, 2018 report recommended for collection of the amount.
Scrutiny of records of the director, mines and geology, revealed that, as of December 2017, 82 out of 131 mining lease holders, had paid Rs 8,289.87 crore against the total demand, leaving the balance of Rs 10,884.51 crore unrecovered.
Following further directions of the Supreme Court to take coercive action to recover the unpaid dues from the defaulting mining lease holders, the director of steel and mines, intimated the collectors of Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj to initiate the process for institution of certificate cases under the Odisha Public Demand Recovery (OPDR) Act, 1962. After initiation of the certificate cases, another Rs 7,371.12 crore had been recovered, along with interest, for delayed payment as of January 2023.
“The department had not taken any effective step like attachment of the whole or any part of the immovable properties belonging to the certificate-debtors, to recover the balance amount of Rs 3,966.34 crore (with interest), although six years had been lapsed,” the report said.
The main objective of OMBADC, a special purpose vehicle, is for undertaking specific tribal welfare and development works in the mining affected areas to ensure inclusive growth of the affected people.
“Though the project management unit (PMU) submitted a perspective plan for ten years on June 2, 2020, the plan had not been approved by OMBADC till April 2023, for implementation of various projects in mining affected districts.
In the absence of approved perspective plan, annual implementation plans were also not prepared and submitted by the PMU for approval of the OMBADC Board,” the CAG report said adding, the corporation had failed to establish either a state-level monitoring unit or district-level monitoring sub-committee.