Indirectly endorses Goa’s move to collect revenue from dumps outisde lease areas
TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: On the vexed issue of mining dumps – where the state and union governments had been at loggerheads – the Central government’s action taken report on the Shah Commission Report has said that dumping outside the mining lease area requires necessary clearances from the competent authorities, while quoting an order issued by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) on January 10, 2013.
The state has already begun generating revenue on the conversion of land used for dumps. The ATR also refers to a Supreme Court judgment of April 2013 that dumping of mining waste (overburdened dumps) also constitutes mining operation and should be limited to the mining lease area. On another petition, the Supreme Court has reserved its judgment and hence consolidated instructions will be issued with regard to the dump removal after the judgment of the Supreme Court.
The ATR also defends the Goa government pointing out that it has already clarified the anomaly detected in difference between production and exports of the iron ore construed as illegal mining by the Shah Commission as “not correct.” According to the state government the gap between the two is either due to ore imported from other states or ore from other states exported from Goa’s ports and as such not captured in the production data of the Department of Mines. Moreover, the Goa government has already decided to undertake a detailed audit of all working leases by chartered accountants and geological experts to assess any over-extraction and appropriate action will be taken based upon the audit report.
The Goa government is also setting up two new offices to strengthen regulatory functions and strengthen the Department of Mines and Geology by deploying additional staff for effective checking, auditing and regulating mining activities in the state, the ATR said.
It further said that the state government is appointing an expert agency for audit of all mining leases to assess compliance level and identify those violating conditions of environment clearance to take exemplary punitive action and recover the cost of any damage to ecology and environment as also take other actions, including filing of criminal cases.
Moreover, the Goa government has also ordered scrutiny of all documents, approvals and permissions.
Noting that annual inspection of each mine as recommended by the commission is difficult due to limited staff in the Indian Bureau of Mining, the government said the ministry has directed the bureau that henceforth frequency of inspection of the fully mechanised mines should be
at least twice in a
financial year.
