Prafulla Mallick to attend mining ministers' meet in Goa today

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Mines Minister Prafulla Mallick will attend the meeting of Mines Ministers at Panaji in Goa today. Ministers of around 21 mineral-rich States are scheduled to congregate there to discuss various issues related to mining.

The meeting which will be chaired by Union Minister of Mines Narendra Singh Tomar will would provide an appropriate platform to monitor the progress of auctions in the country.

Utilisation of district mineral funds and measures to increase productivity of various mines are other important matters to be discussed today, Mallick said. The preparedness of the States to carry out auction of mineral blocks in the changed scenario will also be a part of discussion in the meeting, he added.

The use of the “Transparency Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation (TAMRA)” mobile application to monitor the status of clearances of auctioned mines to further the agenda of “ease of doing business” will be discussed in the meeting

The utilization of the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) to curb illegal mining with the use of space technology will be discussed at the meeting. The MSS has been developed by the Ministry of Mines through Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). The mandatory implementation of the “Star Rating System” for sustainable and responsible mining will be discussed in the meeting.