Giving a fresh breath to the depleting mining sector in the State, an inter-departmental committee on Saturday recommended that the State’s 26 closed mines be reopened under the new Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015. The committee headed by Development Commissioner UN Behera took a decision for the recommendation at a meeting held at the State Secretariat here. The meeting was attended Steel and Mines Principal Secretary, law Secretary, Mines Director, Geology Director, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and officials of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and the Odisha Remote Sensing Applications Centre (ORSAC).
The suggested 26 closed mines include the 18 iron ore and manganese ore mines closed for second and subsequent renewals following the Supreme Court’s orders last year and eight iron and manganese ores which were operating under express orders. The recommendation was made in accordance with the provisions of the MMDR Amendment Act 2015, officials said. “In accordance with the provisions of the amendments made in the MMDR Act, we have recommended extension of leases of 26 mines that had come up for our consideration. These mines had no cases of violation of lease conditions against them and are thus eligible for lease extension,” said Mines Director Deepak Mohanty. He said the committee has recommended extension of lease period till 2030 for captive mines and till 2020 for non-captive mines.
Notably, the State Government had sought additional time of two months from the apex court in February this year to decide on the fate of these mines. The Government had pleaded that scrutiny of these cases needed more time in the aftermath of introduction of new provisions in the MMDR Amendment Ordinance, 2015. In the Mining Ordinance that came into effect on January 12 and has now been converted into an Act, the provision for renewal of mining lease was done away with and instead, all leases awaiting renewal were automatically allowed to operate till 2020 in case of merchant mines and up to 2030 for captive mines, subject to fulfillment of lease conditions.
Ahead of the promulgation of the Mining Ordinance, the State Government decided to auction all mining leases awaiting second and subsequent renewal to shore up revenue from the mining sector through a Cabinet decision. The decision was, however, contested by a few leaseholders in the Odisha High Court that stayed the move. Meanwhile, the new MMDR Act 2015 has made the State Cabinet decision redundant.