PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said 40 mining leases granted illegally by the previous Congress regime will be cancelled. These 40 cases had been identified in the PAC report and a file proposing to take action has already been moved.

Parrikar once again made this statement pointing out that the leases were renewed illegally by condoning the delay in the renewal procedure when there was no legal provision to do so. He took a dig at former chief minister and mines minister Digambar Kamat saying the House should direct these queries to the latter who had been heading the ministry for almost 14 years.

Although current rules prohibit private players from acquiring mines to extract and sell coal in the open market, they have been using an innovative arrangement with state mining corporations to do

Private companies cannot claim any right of exploitation of minerals and the State can impose a ban on private mining notwithstanding its being permitted earlier, the Supreme Court has held.

“If a decision is taken to ban private mining of a single minor mineral for conserving it, such a ban, if it is otherwise within the bounds of the authority given to the government by the statute, cannot be said to involve any change of policy,” said a Bench of Justices R. M. Lodha and H. L. Gokhale.

In Nov, AFISCO was chosen as preferred bidder for iron ore mining and a steel plant in Hajigak

Violation forest rules by cement cos in Jaintia Hills

Shillong: The Shillong bench of the Guahati High Court has directed the State Government to submit a report on whether provisions of the Forest Conservation Act 1980 has been complied while granting permission of establishment of cement plants and limestone mines in Jaintia Hills. Initiating a suo-moto public interest Litigation petition, the court on July 27 directed the government to submit the report in the form of an affidavit within four weeks time.

PANJIM: If one can presume a combination of arrogance and patronage enjoyed by mine owners in their operations, the almost 139 mining rejects dumps lying on forest land, majority of which belong to large mining firms, are a glaring indication.

In a written reply on the floor of the House, Forest Minister Alina Saldanha said that total 139 mining dumps are on forest land, of which 95 are in South Goa and 44 in the North. A total of 37 dumps are on government land.

DURGAPUR, 31 JULY: Mining operations in certain coalmines under Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) was affected, but no miners remained trapped due to today’s power disruption.

The State government has suspended 40 officials and issued show cause notices to 257 others who have been named in Lokayukta report on illegal mining, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to a question byTanveer Sait (Congress), he said show cause notices have been issued to five IAS officers and one IPS officer, and disciplinary action has been taken against three officials of Mysore Minerals Ltd. Besides, 66 officials have been transferred from Bellary district as recommended in the report.

PANJIM: As the final touches are being given to the much-awaited Mining Policy which is likely to be tabled in the House this week, Mines and Geology Department has embarked on a massive exercise of identifying, locating and quantifying mining dumps, which are lying across the State.

Besides other aspects, the draft mining policy is expected to cover all aspects of the controversial dump handling which has been the bone of contention and has evoked heated debates in political and social circles and dump handling was banned during this financial year.

State-run miner Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has signed pacts with steel makers Adhunik Metaliks and Rexon Strips to supply iron ore for next five years from its Kurmitar Pahar mines in Khandadhar area in Koira mining circle of Sundergarh district.

“We have entered into two long-term sales agreements with two companies-Adhunik Metaliks and Rexon Strips. These companies will get one million tonne iron ore every year for a period of five year from Kurmitar mine (Khandadhar),” said Saswat Mishra, chairman-cum-managing director of OMC.