Save minerals for future:Justice Shah

Bhubaneswar: The head of the Centre appointed commission to look into the irregularities in the mining sector in several states including Odisha, Justice M B Shah today advised the state government not to exhaust its entire mineral deposits and instead use it judiciously to save for the future. The commission today met senior officials to gather first hand information about the steps taken by the government to stop illegal mining.

The commission after the conclusion of its visit of several mines in Keonjhar district asked the officials to be careful while renewing the permission of the lease-holders. The commission suggested that while renewing the permission the officilas must strongly scrutinise the track record of the lease holder.

While giving the action taken report, the team of officials headed by the chief secretary too gave some proposals. The proposals included, reconsideration of the royalty, to impose 50 per cent mineral rent resource tax on profits and ban on export of minerals. The chief secretary informed the commission that the government proposed to fix excavation limits for mines in Keonjhar and Koeda and that problem was crearted by IBM due to more than required permissions for raising minerals in the state. The government has proposed that only one nodal agency should be formed to sanction permission for excavation.