CEC talks tough with mine owners in closed door meet
It was four days of intensive fact checking and plain speakby the Central Empowered Committee. On Wednesday afternoon, the CEC Chairman PV Jayakrishnan did some very straight talking with the mine owners in Goa. Itis said, he informed them that undoing the destruction especially in areaswhere there were encroachments on forest lands and not restarting the mines washis priority. During the course of the secret closed door meeting, the CECasked the mining companies to get eight parameters straight.
Cap on Mining – One of the most significant exchanges betweenthe CEC and Mine companies was fixing the annual ore production between 15- 20million tonnes of iron ore.
Renewal of Leases – The CEC had clearly told the mine ownersto get their mining leases renewed under the State’s Stamp Duty Act. They willhave to pay 15 percent of their royalty every year for the next 20 years to getthe renewal of the lease. In the past, the state government was not renewingthe mining leases, letting it run on the deemed provisions. The Indian Stamp(Goa Amendment) Bill 2012 has not yet been passed by Goa Government. The StateCabinet had decided against renewing leases under the old regime.
Mining Plans Renewal – The CEC has insisted that existingMining Plans be reviewed and all Mining Plans should be as per the IndianBureau of Mines mandate. Under the current regime, quite a few of the mineshave to renew their Mining Plans after being whetted by Ministry of Environmentand Forest.
Encroachment – CEC has prepared a detailed note of the encroachmentsmade in the forest. Mining companies were told that it would be suggested tothe SC that further inspections by forest officials and water conservationexperts be conducted since they had seen the damage to the environment incatchment areas. Encroachments in forest land will be examined in greaterdetail.
Dump Handling – Amongst CEC’s topmost priorities will be thefilling up of unutilised dumps and mining pits. CEC found evidence of overextraction from mining dumps. Revenuelosses due to the same will also be under tougher scrutiny.
Rule 37 – CEC has toughened its stance on Rule 37 of theMineral Concession Rules, 1960. If the CEC has its’ way, only the lessees willbe allowed to extract and sell mineral ore. Currently the rule does not make itmandatory for the lease holder to extract ore.
Regulation of Transport – The overloading of barges andtippers especially caused a few fatal road accidents did not go unnoticed byCEC. The CEC was of the view that Goa is a fit case to replicate the Karnatakamodel for mining mineral ore.
Sources reveal that CEC besides inspecting all leaseownership’s, partnerships and roles of raising contractors in the last fiveyears will scrutinise all documents submitted to them of the mines they visitedand will ask the SC for more time to submit their report. Only after this willthe PIL by Goa Foundation will come up for hearing. CEC is also scrutinisingthe role of the previous Mines Minister in granting clearances.
