Team Herald
PANJIM: Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Friday urged the Union Mines Ministry to permit dumping of iron ore rejects outside the lease area, considering the limited scope within lease areas.
Parsekar, along with Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, met Union Minister for Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi, requesting him to provide necessary support for resumption of iron ore mining operations in October this year.
The Union Minister has apparently assured the State to resolve all the pending issues for immediate resumption of the mining industry, which is at a halt for the last 34 months.
Speaking to Herald from New Delhi, Parsekar said that the Union minister has assured all possible help in resuming mining in the State.
“I have apprised the minister about all the legal and technical difficulties. We are expecting to resume the activity in October after the monsoons,” he said.
The chief minister said that there are a few legal and technical difficulties in resuming mining in the State which can be solved with help from the Union Government.
When asked, Parsekar said that the minister was also urged to look into the issue of allowing iron ore rejects to be dumped outside the lease area, thereby removing the deadlock in resumption of mining operations by giving effect to the further required amendment in the MMDR Act, 2015.
“The amended MMDR Act, 2015 does not include the legislative provision to allow dumping of iron ore rejects outside the mining lease area,” he said. The chief minister also met Union Environment and Forests minister Prakash Javadekar and informed him that legal sand mining in the State will begin in a month.
