Members of the Central Empowerment Committee (CEC) on Wednesday visited the Sharda Iron Mines in Deojhar in Joda block operated by the Jindal Steel following several allegations against the company for violating environment and forest laws.
The four-member team escorted by senior forests and mining officials of the State reached Keonjhar from Bhubaneswar and went to the mines. After taking a look around the mines, the team verified several records of the mining firm including licences, forest and environment clearances, production, dispatch and mineral sales figures at a review meeting at the Kalinga IDCOl guesthouse.
Team members, member-secretary MK Gibarjika, Mahendra Byas and Dr MK Muthus, led by Chairman CEC PV Jaikrishnan made queries on the allegations received through petitions from Odisha. An activist of Jan Morcha, BK Parida, submitted a fresh rejoinder petition against the company on violation of environment laws to the CEC Chairman at Barbil.
PCCF RK Sharma along with his officials, Umesh Jena and Satyananda Sahoo from the mines department appeared on behalf of the State Government.