SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In what could wreck the plans of Goa’s iron ore mining industry stakeholders, the Central government has proposed to take over States’ powers to auction mining leases that expired in March 2020 as State governments failed to auction the blocks. Goa has the highest number of 184 iron ore leases in country that expired in March 2020, of which 124 leases can be taken up for ore extraction.
The Union Ministry of Mines has proposed amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957. The draft amendments have been kept open for suggestion and comments from stakeholders till February 24.
In the proposed amendment, the Ministry points out that under the Act, the States conduct auction of mineral concession. Further, mining leases in relation to 334 blocks expired on March 31, 2020 across India.
It said that the Ministry is pursuing with the State governments since 2019 for early auction of these blocks ensuring continuity in production of minerals. However, only 28 blocks have been auctioned till date.
“Hence, it is proposed to provide the power to Central government to conduct auction in cases where the State government face challenges in conduct of auction or fail to conduct auction,” the amendments proposed, adding that the revenue will accrue to the State.
“In case where the Central government auction the blocks, the revenue in respect of such blocks will accrue to the State governments, only,” it proposed further.
The move is to ensure continuous supply of minerals in the country. “Any delay in conduct of auction has substantial impact on the availability as well as prices of minerals,” it added.
As per the Central government-appointed Dr K Rajeswara Rao Committee, 184 mining leases in Goa expired in March 2020. These are apart from 88 leases, whose renewals were quashed and set aside by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Union Ministry of Mines had appointed Dr K Rajeswara Rao committee in December 2018 to look into the various issues related to seamless operationalisation of the mining leases expiring under Section 8A(6) of the MMDR Act (amendment) 2015.
The Committee, in its report submitted to the Ministry, has identified around 334 mining leases which would expire on March 31, 2020. Of these, there are 184 non-working mines in Goa that would stand expired in 2020, followed by 50 in Karnataka, 31 in Odisha, 21 in Jharkhand, etc.
In Goa, of the total 184 non-working mines, there are 60 leases that fall in the protected areas of wildlife sanctuaries and national park, within the buffer zone and hence cannot be taken up for mining in future. “Remaining 124 mining leases can be taken up for mining in future through e-auction,” the report stated.
Further, of these 124, there are 77 leases, which have never worked since they were granted lease by the government and there are another 47 leases which have worked for some time.
