Odisha Channel Bureau
Bhubaneswar: As far as the bidding for mining blocks are concerned, the Odisha government has taken untiring steps to open up vistas for mineral auction with insistence on prospecting as par as UNFC guidelines. With this guideline the bidders will get a transparent view before the miners bid. Significantly the drillings have been outsourced which will not only hasten the process for reserve determination but also lead to hassle free determination of the blocks that the miners wish to bid for.
Addressing at the roundtable on recent Odisha Mining Scenario, organised by FICCI, Odisha Chapter, in Bhubaneswar, Sanjeev Das, senior vice-president, IMFA and FICCI State Odisha Council’s mining panel Chair said, “There are many factors contributing to such fluctuations including court judgments and field investigation by authorised agencies lead to reduction of leases across the country including Odisha. However, despite the hurdles, the production and despatches of Odisha have shown very steady signs”.
Elaborating the present scenario in Odisha mining, Das said that the production as on January 2018 stood at 204.24 million and despatches have grown up 224.69 million. He also expressed satisfaction over the royalty in the financial year 17, which is likely to cross the levels of Rs 5135 crores and DMF collection has crossed nearly Rs 4000 crores.
He lauded the Central government’ effort for taking steps to have a seamless transfer of mines leases under auction process post 2020.
R K Sharma, Principal Secretary of the Steel and Mines Department of the State said, “The government will not get affected by closure of few mines because in the past they successfully handled the situation when large numbers of mines were closed down.”
Sharma said that the miners have to comply with all provisions of the law to operate mines in the State. To overcome the judiciary problem, miners can file curative petition in Supreme Court. As mines are subject of Central government, State government has little option to do.
Manish Kharbanda, Executive Director, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, “Without government’s intervention, iron ore production will come down which will affect the steel industry most. G2 level drilling already come down to low level. State government can discuss all these issue with central government and should take proactive steps to solve the problem of miners as earliest as possible”.
Other dignitaries including Sanjeev Nandwani, president, Mideast Integrated Steels Limited, Sankar Pratap Singh of JSW Limited, Manikant Nayak, CRE, Tata Steel Limited and president of EZMA, Prabodh Mohanty.
