The State Government on Saturday ordered for confiscation of movable and immovable assets of two defaulting mining companies in Keonjhar district.
Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thakre, while hearing a certificate case, directed the concerned officials to initiate proceedings against these companies under the Odisha Public Demands Recovery Act, 1962.
The order was passed against the MR Das Mines and the Arjun Lodha Mines.
In conformity of a Supreme Court directive, leases of Arjun Lodha iron and manganese mines at Balagoda and MR Das iron mine at Deojhar had been cancelled for their inability to pay penalty for illegal extraction of minerals between 2000-01 and
2010-10.
Notably, Arjun Lodha was fined Rs 63.42 crore on a lease area of 326.05 hectares and MR Das Rs 2.90 crore for a lease area of 11.537 hectares.
On June 12, the court had directed for attachment of properties of six companies, Shiv Dutt Sharma, BPME, Narayani & Sons Limited, BK Mohanty, Odisha Mining Development Corporation (Thakurani) and Basudev Agrawal.
