The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) will be making a three-day field visit to Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts before preparing a final report on violation of environment laws by mining lessees.
According to sources, a CEC team, after arriving in Bhubaneswar on Saturday, will proceed to Keonjhar and hold discussions with field-level Government officers at the Kalinga Guesthouse, Barbil. On Sunday, the team is expected to visit the Uliburu mines of BK Mohanty, Ram Bahadur Thakur (RBT) mines, Kaypee Enterprises of the Ahluwallia group, Essel Mines, Kasia and RP Sao mines under the Barbil forest range.
Next day, the team is scheduled to visit the Balda mines of Serajuddin, Rungta Jajang mines, Essel mines, Jilling under the Champua forest range. It also has plans to visit the Aryan Mining (AMPC), JN Pattnaik mines and Tarini Mohanty mines under the Bonai forest range in Sundargarh district the same afternoon.
On July 15, the team will return to Bhubaneswar to hold talks with State Government officials before returning to Delhi on July 16.
The State Government had earlier submitted a list of 186 mines, which operated without forest and environment clearances since 1980. The Government has also issued fine notices to the lessees for such violation, but the matter is sub-judice in court of law.
The CEC is making an independent inquiry into the matter to prepare a report on the facts to be submitted to the Supreme Court soon.