The two-member team of the Justice MB Shah Commission of inquiry, which arrived in the State on Friday on a five-day visit, inspected three mines in the Joda area in Keonjhar district on Saturday.
The team consisting of Biswajeet Mishra and Janardan Prasad visited the mines of Serajuddin at Balda, Tata Steel, Khondbondh and Kalinga Mining Corporation near Jurudi on the first day.
During the last visit of the commission, 42 mining companies had complained about the incorrectness of the Differential Geographical Positioning System (DGPS) maps prepared by the State Government, for which Justice Shah ordered a fresh survey of the concerned mines at the lessees’ costs.
Five survey teams constituted for the purpose have carried on resurvey of mining lease boundaries as per the guidelines laid down by the commission. The leases of many mines have expired and the mining operations have continued under the deemed extension anticipating grant of renewal.
The leases granted earlier were based on cadastral maps supplied by the Revenue and Forest Departments, for which these maps after being prepared digitally mismatched when superimposed on satellite Google maps.
After the survey is completed, the lease boundary information collected from the field survey would be verified with the other maps in the lab in Bhubaneswar before going in for any rectifications or changes, said State Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty, who escorted the Shah panel team from Bhubaneswar.
The team will visit some more mines in the Koida Mining Circle in Sundargarh district before discussing issues relating to the mining lease boundaries with the line departments’ officers and lessees during their stay at Barbil in Keonjhar district.
This is said to be the last visit of a team of the commission before the panel submits its final report to the Central Government.