India: Odisha to send Notices to Cancel 56 Mines

Acting tough against mine owners who are yet to pay their share of compensation for illegally excavated ore, the Odisha government is gearing up to despatch notices to determine their leases.

The state mines department has identified 56 iron ore and manganese mining leases where the owners have failed to make payments. Of the 56 leases, partial payments have been done in case of 13 mines. For the residual 43 leases, no payment is made yet.

In the list of 56 leases are the ones held by Sarada Mines Ltd, Mideast Integrated Steels (or Mesco Steels), RP Sao, Tarini Minerals held by Geetarani Mohanty, Orissa Minerals Development Company (OMDC) and others. Together, these mines owe Rs 7552 crore to the state government for violations of Environment (Protection) Act and Forest (Conservation) Act. Total compensation calculated by the government is assessed at Rs 19174 crore for both the violations.

"A 60-day notice would be slapped on the erring miners to determine their leases. Now, the mine owners stand no chance to save their leases. The Director of mines has already compiled the addresses of the concerned leaseholders and sent them to the government for necessary action", said an official source.

Apart from determining leases, the state government is readying to confiscate assets and attach properties including bank accounts of the defaulting lessees. The state government plans to invoke the provisions of the Odisha Public Demands Recovery Act, 1962 to seize assets as the mining penalty is categorised under land dues.

The state government has hitherto collected Rs 11621.79 crore from demand notices served on 137 leases. Out of the total figure, 81 have made full payments. A state level committee chaired by principal secretary, steel & mines has been constituted to take a call on the action to be taken against the erring mines. That apart, committees have been formed at district levels to initiate the process of seizure of assets. The state task force on mining has already decided to take the extreme step of cancelling leases of defaulters. This step may trigger another legal battle as the lessees might contest the government orders.

However, the determination of leases would not hurt iron ore production in Odisha as most of the mines staring at closure are idle. Last fiscal, Odisha churned out 102 million tonnes of iron ore, the highest in the country and accounting for more than a half of the pan-India production of 190 million tonnes.