Again, a two-member team of the Justice MB Shah Commission of Inquiry is arriving here on Friday on a five-day visit to the State to undertake field verification of mine leases in Keonjhar and Sundargarah districts ahead of finalisation of the commission’s report.
The probe panel, which earlier visited the State four times to investigate cases of illegal mining will this time be represented by its members Bishwajeet Mishra, Conservator of Forests (Karnataka) and Janardan Prasad, Senior Geologist, Gujarat unit of Geological Survey of India.
“Two members of the Shah Commission are reaching on May 24 and will visit the Joda and Koira mining circles from May 24 to check the progress of survey work of mine lease boundaries as to whether it is being done on the commission’s guidelines,” said State Secretary of Steel and Mines Rajesh Burma.
Besides physical verification of the lease boundary areas and studying the accuracy of the Differential Geographical Positioning System (DGPS), the team would also inspect the procedure adopted by the Odisha Space Application Centre for generation of digitised maps of mine leases at its lab in Bhubaneswar.
Before leaving, the team would meet the officials of officials of the Steel and Mines and Forest and Environment Departments to study the ORSAC maps and other aspects on Monday next.
The members would also check if land use by the mine lessees is in accordance with the forest diversion plan, procedure followed in grant of surface rights to miners and safety measures undertaken by the miners in the safety zones.
According to official sources, out of 44 mine leases where fresh mapping survey is being carried out, data collection is through in case of 19 leases.
The mine owners’ contention was that there were discrepancies in the mapping of the lease boundaries. The DGPS map prepared by the ORSAC was not up to the mark. They had also demanded pillar-to-pillar survey of the mining areas.
The commission had decided to conduct a fresh survey wherein the miners agreed to pay Rs 4 lakh per sqkm to conduct physical survey in their areas.