The much-awaited decision on the renewal of mining leases pending with the Government will take some more time to come. The Cabinet on Tuesday though discussed proposals from companies like Tata Steel and SAIl for their iron ore mines but gave its nod just to one belonging to the Uranium Corporation of India limited’s (UCIl) at Jaduguda in Jharkhand.
“The Cabinet has decided to renew the lease belonging to UCIl for the period of 20 years. It is the second renewal given to the uranium company,” said Cabinet Secretary JB Tubid while briefing media persons after the meeting. Sources in the Government though said that the proposals concerning iron ore mines of Tata at Noamundi and Durgaiburu, Bidhaburu and Kiriburu-Meghathaburu of SAIl and a few others featured in the Cabinet meeting but no final call could be taken.
The Centre had on July 18 directed all the States to shut mines running under deemed extensions under second or subsequent renewals. The directive following the Supreme Court’s order has left just five other mines operational in the State out of total 17. Besides SAIl and Tata Steel, Singhbhum Minerals, Ml Jain and Sons, Devka Bhai, Rameshwar Jute Mill, Orissa Manganese and Minerals, Vijay Kumar Ojha Bara, M/s Singhbhum Mineral Company and Padam Kumar Jain have been affected by the indecision of the Government.
“The delay is far from understandable particularly to SAIl and Tata. We are the only captive user of iron ore in the State and have presented everything required for the renewal before the Government on September 8 itself. We have got some unconfirmed inputs that the Government is in mood to clear all applications including of the private companies at a time and that is why our clearances have been put on hold as well,” said a senior official of SAIl.
This is despite the Centre making it clear to the State to take the renewal applications on individual basis and as and when those are coming to the Government. It was done to expedite things and not to make others suffer for the fault of some.
Apart from affecting the operations of the companies the pendency has its bearings on royalty coming to the Government. The official of SAIl added that the Maharatna company is meeting the need of Bokaro Steel Plant from the iron ore coming from their facilities located in Odisha while stock for just 5-6 more days is left at its Kiriburu-Meghathaburu mining site in Jharkhand.