Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation ltd. (CMDC) will soon seek professional consultancy for improving operational effectiveness and enhancement of revenues , officials informed.
It has also sought forest land diversion of 99.35 hectares for Pathrai Bauxite mines in the state.
The main objective of the company is to search major and minor minerals and precious stones and to acquire mining rights for exploration and development of the mines. The mission of CMDC is to enhance production, officials informed.
Notably, the Ministry of Mines was monitoring the process very closely with the state governments. The consensus emerged that the Mineral Auction Rules need to be amended to make the process more pragmatic without sacrificing the checks on successful bidders. The Mineral Auction Rules have been amended on November 30, 2017, the Central Government has informed.
Under the old rules, the process of auction was annulled if there are less than 3 bidders and this process used to be carried out for 3 rounds at least. Only in the 4th round flexibility was allowed. Each round of auction carries on for 3 months at least and this resulted in many blocks getting annulled time and again.
While a minimum of 3 bidders is still stipulated in first attempt to auction, in the amended rules now the states have the flexibility of allocating the block in the 2nd round itself even if there are less than 3 bidders.
This will make the auction process less cumbersome and will help states auction mineral blocks quickly, it had informed earlier.