leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Narasingha Mishra has slammed the State Government for not collecting penalty of Rs66,000 crore from defaulting iron and manganese lease owners even five years after the amount was imposed on them in 2010.
“The amount was imposed on the defaulting iron and manganese lease owners u/s 21 (5) of the MMDR Act in 2010 for the open and flagrant violation of lease conditions. But the amount is yet to be collected as the State Government has taken no steps to vacate an interim stay order granted by the Centre. Appropriate steps should be taken at the earliest for collection of the penalty amount which can meet State’s severe financial problem,” Mishra stated in a letter to Steel and Mines Secretary RK Sharma.
He mentioned in the letter that the Centre had granted the interim stay on February 1, 2011 against the State’s notice to the defaulting lease owners which warned that mining lease would be determined and the whole of security deposit would be forfeited if they fail to pay the penalty.
In its order, the Centre had directed that “no coercive action like stopping transit permit or mining operations or action upon or giving effect to the impugned order or demand raised thereon be taken during pending of the revision application or till further orders, whichever is earlier.
“However, the State Government has taken no steps to vacate the stay even after passing of five years,” said Mishra.
The leader of Opposition further mentioned that while the State is reeling under severe resource crunch; numbers of farmers are taking recourse to suicide to escape loan burdens aggravated by loss of crops. Huge funds are required to pay subsidised loans to distressed farmers and to create irrigation projects for perennial water to agriculture. Besides this, funds are required for staff recruitments and filling up vacant posts, including of teachers, and for infrastructure projects like construction of roads and bridges.
If the above penalty amount is realised it would go a long way in solving these problems. Mishra also sent copies of this letter to the Steel and Mines, labour and ESI Minister for information.