The Inter-Departmental Committee that met at the Secretariat here on Saturday to examine the status of 11 closed iron ore mines in the State before recommending their reopening found that none of the mines had statutory clearances. The committee, headed by Development Commissioner UN Behera, found that all these were non-captive mines, said Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty.
It may be mentioned that the State Government had on April 18 extended the lease periods of 26 mines and issued orders to the companies to execute supplementary lease deeds within three months following approval of the recommendations by the Chief Minister.