Slamming Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for opposing disinvestment of Nalco, Union Mines Minister Dinsha Patel today said there was a move to offload 30 per cent stake in the aluminium giant when Patnaik was at the Centre.

The government, now is discussing selling off only 12.5 per cent stake. "When Naveen Patnaik was Union Mines minister, there was a move by the then NDA government for 30 per cent disinvestment in Nalco. However, now discussions are on for divesting only 12.5 per cent in the Navaratna PSU," Patel told reporters here.

Steel units and sponge iron makers operating in the state without raw material linkages have demanded holding of separate e-auctions for local end-use industries and bidders having units outside the state.

“There should be separate e-auctions for Odisha-based industries and units located outside the state. While units outside the state will only pay commission to the state government for the ore bought through auction, local units are contributing in many ways like payment of taxes and employment generation,” said P L Kandoi, president, All Odisha Steel Federation (AOSF), a body representing the interests of local steel units and sponge iron manufacturers.

In a bid to find alternate source of bauxite for the Lanjigarh alumina refinery of the Vedanta Alumininium Ltd (VAL), which is shut down for want of raw material since December 5, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has decided to apply for mining lease of Karlapat bauxite deposits soon.

OMC had entered into a Mou with VAL for supply of bauxite from its Niyamgiri mines in Kalahandi district, but the plan was derailed by persistent protests by tribal community and green activists, finally leading to the cancellation of forest clearance for the mining activity by Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) in August 2010.

The Odisha government has approved a proposal for withdrawal of land acquisition process for Sterlite Iron and Steel Company, a Vedanta group firm, which proposed to set up of a 5 million tonne steel plant in Keonjhar district.

The government has directed the revenue department to take appropriate action in this regard. “The government, after careful consideration, has been pleased to accept the land surrender proposal. You are therefore, requested to take action as per rules/act in vogue,” the state steel and mines department wrote to the deputy revenue secretary.

Sharing the concerns of the Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri in Kalahandi district whose protests had put a halt to Vedanta’s bauxite mining plan two years ago, over hundreds of tribals, under the

Early this month, billionaire Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Group was forced to shut its one million tonnes per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district due to unavailability of bauxite, 15 years after state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation signed over its rights to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills to the group firm.

The group has invested Rs 30,000 crore in six years to set up the aluminium business under Vedanta Aluminium, believing it would be able to get approvals for captive bauxite mines by the time the facilities get commissioned. Eventually, it commissioned a 1 mtpa refiner, a 0.5 mtpa smelter and a 1,215 Mw captive power plant, but approval for bauxite mining did not come.

State initiates process to lease out Pattangi mine to the company

National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has resumed bauxite excavation at its Panchpatmali (North-Central block) mines nearly a month after it shut down operation at the site following expiry of lease deed on November 16. The company has obtained a temporary working permit (TWP) to raise mineral for a year, pending renewal of its mining lease.

“We have started the mines operation today after receiving the TWP. We will complete all pending work within four months to put up our cases for lease renewal. We hope to get the lease renewal within a year,” said a senior official of Nalco.

The Ministerial committee of the state government, which has been mandated to chalk out plans for providing raw material to mineral based industries in Odisha, will be meeting on Tuesday to formulate the supply policy mechanism.

The panel was supposed to meet on December 14, but it was rescheduled to December 18. The state government formed the panel in October this year with an aim to find out measures for making iron ore, manganese, bauxite and chrome ore available to the mineral based industries, which do not have captive mines. It has been already decided that the ores will be made available in a fair and equitable manner through the state-run PSU Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and other mining lessees.

Any dilution of the rules under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, as being contemplated at the highest levels of the government, could lead to adverse impact in the ongoing Supreme Court case on UPA's d