In a petition to Additional Chief Secretary RK Sharma, MASS, a people's organisation, brought to the notice of the Government, that mining leasees are adopting malpractices to obtain transit permit under the Orissa Minerals (Prevention of Theft, Smuggling and Illegal Mining and Regulation of Possession, Storage, Trading and Transportation ) Rules.
Pointing out the lacuna in the present system of issuance of Transit Permit, MASS secretary Subrat Tripathy told that in many instances, the verification report of the concerned mining inspector is issued on the same date of submitting application in Form J. The average distance from mining circles to mining lease area is 10-50 km and it is difficult for a person to visit all these mines daily, inspect and issue reports on the same date. It has come to notice that the verification reports are issued online without site inspection of many stacks, he alleged.
Lessees keep on transporting high grade material directly from the mines showing them as low grade stacked material. It invites malpractices in grade declaration in the chemical analysis report in Form K issued by the Government laboratory considering the strength of manpower, time in analysis of samples and issuance of reports. Further, there is a need for a physical verification of the samples which are required to be kept as umpire samples at concerned DDM office for future verifications.
In case of mineral transportation by railway wagon, samples of minerals shall be drawn by the person authorized by the concerned DDM office /Analytical chemist. The analysis of samples shall be done at Government laboratory. Considering large rake movement, it invites manipulation of grades wherever stacking permission has been granted, Tripathy said.
Many mines are transporting minerals under the provision of stacking. Present revenue collection of Rs 11,019 crore for all minerals in FY 19-20 would have been much higher if the under reporting of grade and royalty was prevented.
Tripathy urged the Government to check illegal transportation and storage of minerals.
Vigilance of mining and transport of mineral using drone technology should be adopted at the earliest. Inquiry most be initiated on position and movement of material from stacks, based on the Google map/ image from Cartosat satellite as these are capable of showing movement of material stack wise for retrospective dates also. The Government must inquire about grant of transit permit on the same date of applying under Form J without actual field verification, he told.
The loss incurred to the State Government must be recovered from the lessees who have adopted the malpractices. Penal action may be initiated against few mines who do not even have space for stacking and sampling given their high EC capacity and the overall lease area.
An inquiry to be instituted for the past 3-4 years depending on when the clearance for stacking and sampling was granted to these mines and strict action be taken for recovery. New lessees who have taken the mining lease through auction should continue with the same practice of paying the highest royalty as was being followed before auctions. The State level task force reports of Narayanposhi, AMTC should be made public.
Tripathy told that big corporates who have taken mining lease at very high premiums which are not possible to be shared, will resort to all kinds of malpractices. He urged the State to take bold steps on withdrawing the stacking and sampling permission to all mines, not allowing the change in definition of the average sale price as ascertained by IBM, imposing a rate of Rs 4/ton for slurry transport amongst others.