Ruing inordinate delays that take place in securing statuary clearances prerequisite to make any mine operational, chief of the major public sector undertaking—the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC)—blamed the Gram Sabhas for that.
HEC CMD Abhijit Ghosh said during a conclave on mining by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) organised on Tuesday that often the hurdle takes a severe tall on viability of mineral exploration and related project.
“Securing environmental clearance is not easy. Building land bank could make the things easier. Under the new statutes, role of Gram Sabhas in getting land has increased. But due to vested interest involved locally the proceedings of Gram Sabhas often obstruct unnecessarily causing delay. These things make mining plan unviable and the cost goes up exponentially,” said the CMD of the HEC.
He referred to once operational copper mine of Ghatshila which got closed and later had to resume operations but had to spent years waiting to get the green nods afresh. The CMD also added that if the target from present 120 MT to 300 MT set for 2030 for iron and steel production of the country was to be achieved then process to get the clearances should start now. The Government has set the target which would require 500 MT of iron ore to be mined which are stashed in Jharkhand primarily.
Abhijit Ghosh at the same stressed over changing mining pattern and technology for the future. “We at the HEC discuss and are working to build more equipment used in underground mining instead of opencast mining. This is the way forward,” he said.
Nevertheless Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Department of Environment and Forest Shashi Nandkuliar quickly rebutted the anguish over the procedural delay.
“Mining is a key activity for economic development however focus should be on sustainable mining before it is too late. Time taken is as per the spirit of the Forest Conservation Act. Millennium Development Goal of the UN also says that. Despite that series of amendments have taken place making things easier what it was before. Timeframes are set for providing or denying clearances,” said the PCCF advocating greater degree of technological infusion for mining citing destructions taken place at Saranda region where Asia’s largest Sal forest is said to has disturbed beyond repair.
“Gandhi ji had said, ‘we have enough resources for our need but not for our greed.’ Therefore there is a need to protect and conserve our environment. For sustainable mining, technology is the key. There should also be increased focus on use of non-conventional energy,” he stated.
The PCCF said that issues are more in Jharkhand since the State is rich in minerals. Also he opined that most of the applications which are submitted for forest clearance are incomplete which delays the process unnecessarily. Also addressed the conclave was Arun Kumar, Assistant Director with Directorate of Mines.
“Presence of mineral wealth in the State highlights potential of the mining and allied industries in the State. There has also been a paradigm shift in regulations to promote investment. The National Mineral Exploration Policy has been launched to attract private investments in exploration activities and fiscal incentives are provided by both central and state governments to encourage investments,” he said.
Sauvick Mazumdar of Vedanta Ltd, Goutam Chatterjee, Director – Commercial, MECON Ltd, Killol Kamani, Chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council, Neeraj Kant, Vice Chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council and AK Sarangi of UCIL also expressed their views. A CII-MECON Knowledge Paper on Mining Industry – Challenges & Way Forward was unveiled at the forum.