The Hemant Soren Cabinet on Monday took decisions on several long-pending issues which include lease renewal of two mines belonging to the Steel Authority of India limited (SAIl) and Tata Steel in Jharkhand.
Besides the two iron ore mines, one of limestone of cement manufacturer ACC has also been renewed. All the mines are situated in West Singhbhum district of the State and were shut down since the Centre’s directive came about deemed extension provision.
The steel major SAIl has got second mining lease renewal for 20 years period for its Dhobil-Budhaburu of Chiria mining field while another Durgaiburu lease of Gua iron ore mines located in Saranda forest has also been given the extension.
“The SAIl iron ore mines located in West Singhbhum district have been renewed by the Cabinet. leases of Dhobil-Budhaburu for 513 hectares and Gua-Durgaiburu for 635 hectares out of total 1443 hectares have been renewed for 20 years. Besides, the Cabinet also approved iron ore mining lease renewal for 768.55 hectares of land of Noamundi of Tata and of limestone of ACC again for 20 years,” said Cabinet Secretary JB Tubid after the Cabinet meeting.
Nevertheless the lease renewal has not brought much cheer to the iron companies. “It is an eyewash. As the HC is expected to hear the case of Tata on Tuesday, the Government wanted something to show to the court. They have put conditions like payment of the actual price of the iron ore extracted during the deemed extension period and we have to give that in writing to the Government. Only then the actual operation would be allowed to take place. We have already challenged the proposal put before us to the HC and we stand by that. It is impossible to pay price to the tune of Rs4,000 crore,” a senior official of SAIl told The Pioneer after the Cabinet decision.
Mining operations of SAIl and Tata besides, several other companies were on halt since the September 4 directive of the Centre in the light of the Supreme Court’s order given in a case related to deemed extension provision for Odisha. This has affected severely the industrial production and the companies had approached the Jharkhand High Court on the condition put by the State Government to pay price of the mineral extracted under the deemed extension period.
The companies have contested the condition being put by the Government in view of the apex court’s order which considers mining under the deemed extension period as illegal and made provision for paying the actual price to the Government.
“The operation had been stopped on September 4 while the SC order came much earlier. Why the operation was stopped then and the State Government allowed the user agencies to continue miningIJ It is not our fault that they sat on our applications for renewal for so long,” said a General Manager rank official of one of the companies who vowed that the matter would be fought till its logical conclusion.