A two-member team of the Justice MB Shah Commission probing the multi-crore mining scam in Odisha will visit the State Odisha from the next week to conduct field verification and data analysis of various mines, where physical verifications of the lease areas have been conducted by the State Government.
Senior officials Biswajeet Mishra and Prasad would begin their three-day tour from May 20, revealed a senior official of the Department of Steel and Mines here.
Notably, several lessees had raised question on the authenticity of the Differential Geographical Positioning System (DGPS), which was used for demarcation of mining lease boundaries in Odisha, before the Shah Commission inquiring large-scale irregularities in iron ore and manganese mines.
Various mining companies had argued that the DGPS map prepared by the State Government using the Google Earth Image and based on the figures of the Base Map prepared manually way back in the 1960s was not correct.
Accordingly, the Shah Commission during its hearing in February this year had allowed physical verification of 44 leasehold areas, said official sources.
The Department of Steel & Mines (DoSM) has constituted five teams to go in for physical verification of these mines. Till date, the physical verification of 19 mines is complete while data analysis of these mines and field verification of another five mines are going on, said a senior official of the DoSM.
Physical verification of 12 out of the 20 left-out mines would be taken up soon when eight lessees have not yet deposited the required amount with the State Government, said the official.
This type of verification of mines was allowed for the mines, the owners of which came forward to bear the cost of a fresh survey at the rate of Rs.2 lakh per square kilometer of the mining area, revealed the official.