Mining and mineral transportation would be kept under constant satellite surveillance in the State.
A decision to this effect was taken at the State-level Taskforce meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday. Steel and Mines Secretary Raj Kumar Sharma presented proposals for discussion.
Padhi directed to develop Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) for regular satellite checking of mining activities at the ground level and expedite the process for GPS tracking of mineral bearing vehicles.
He advised ORSAC Chief Executive Sandeep Tripathy to carry forward satellite monitoring of mining activities to the department on regular basis so that necessary actions can be taken in case of violations.
It was decided to have a complete data base of all the mineral transactions happening in the State, including import, export and inside consumption figures.
Concerned district Collectors were asked to hold the District Taskforce meetings regularly in each month. Padhi too asked them to strictly deal with the trouble makers who obstruct mineral transport activities under pleas of so-called associati-on/strikes/bandhs.
While experts opined that Google Earth map may placed two years back may not provide appropriate base for comparison of DGPS data being collected by the ORSAC, it was decided that updated Earth map would be procured from the National Remote Sensing Center.
ORSAC has been advised to procure the same and carry on surveillance activities in each six months. Similarly, ORSAC has also developed a techno-commercial proposal for tracking of mineral bearing vehicles regularly from source to destination. The department has been advised to expedite the process for putting the system in place.
All the lessees, end user industries and transport agencies have been asked to sign the service provider agreement with MSTC ltd, which has developed e-tendering system for transport agencies.