TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The State has been asked to frame or amend rules on minor mineral concessions as per the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests March 2010 report and report compliance to the Supreme Court.
It has also been asked to reply to the ministry’s queries on mineral concession proposals asking for information or clarification by May 31, 2013, failing which the Ministry would be constrained to return the proposals where there has been no response for a period of six months.
The Coordination-cum-Empowered Committee (CEC) on Mineral Development and Regulation held recently and attended by the state Principal Secretary, Mines, R K Verma, in a letter dated 30th May has also asked that a report on the action taken be furnished to the MoEF by June 15
According to the minutes of the CCEC meeting, on the minor minerals issue, the directions were in keeping with the Supreme Court directives in the Deepak Kumar case and issued on 27.2.2012, where States and Union Territories were “required to frame or amend the Minor Mineral Concession Rules” taking into consideration the recommendations in the MoEF’s March 2010 report.
State Governments were also required to report their compliance directly to the Apex Court.
The meeting also drew attention to the Ministry’s guidelines (dated 29th July, 2010) that said that mineral concession proposals referred to the States asking for information or clarifications had not received any response from them even though t hey had to be returned back within a six months.
On April 18, a list of cases pending with governments had been sent by the ministry asking for replies by May 31, says the letter dated May 30.
There are 94 cases are pending with various state governments, 78 of which are more than 6-months old.
Other states present for the meeting were Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
