Industry Odisha Bureau, Sep 26: Seventeen mine owners, who took 20 mineral blocks on lease from the Odisha government, are yet to pay a penalty of Rs 2,693.55 crore imposed on them by the Supreme Court for excess mining in violation of the mining plan and statutory clearances.
According to a statement of Steel and Mines Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena given in Assembly, the Supreme Court order was passed in August 2017, in which, certain mining lessees were found to have extracted minerals unlawfully and illegally in violation of Environment Clearance(EC)/Forest Clearance(FC), undisposed stock and Mining Plan/Consent to Operate(CTO).
Accordingly, penalty/compensation was imposed on the concerned mining lessees for unlawful extraction of minerals.
Further, 132 mining lessees were issued demand for violation of EC/FC amounting to Rs 18,169.14 crore. Out of this, Rs 15,528.25 crore towards principal and Rs 654.08 crore towards interest have been recovered till date, he said.
The mining lessees who are yet to deposit the penalty amount of Rs,693.55 crore have been declared as defaulters, the Minister said.
In 2018, certificate cases under the provision of the Orissa Public Demands Recovery (OPDR) Act, 1962 have been initiated against the defaulters for realization of the fine.
The 17 defaulters are—Gandhamardhan Sponge Industries (P) Ltd, B D Ararwala, J K Choubey, Basant Kumar Das, H G Pandya & others, BPME Ltd, B K Mohanty, TB Lal & Co, B C Deb, Arjun Lodha, Bhaja Minerals, Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd, S N Dasmohapatra, OM&M Ltd, BS Misra and Zenith Mining (P) Ltd.
Notably, the Government of India had constituted a Commission of inquiry led by justice M B Shah in 2010 to inquire into the alleged illegal mining in the State in respect of the iron and manganese mining leases.
Later, a Writ Petition was filed by the NGO Common Cause in 2014 with a prayer for an investigation on the issue by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The facts placed in the report of the Shah Commission were challenged by the concerned mining lease holders on the grounds of production figures, price of the minerals, approval of Mining Plan vis-a-vis Environment Clearance (EC).
The Supreme Court, having considered the petitions of the mining lease holders, directed the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to inquire into the issues without reference to the Shah Commission’s Report.
Later, CEC reconciled the figures of production from 2000-01 to 2010-11 in respect of all the mining leases in Odisha along with the validity of the EC and came up with the assessment of compensation towards extraction of minerals in violation of EC/FC (Environmental Clearance/Forest Clearance), and MP/CTO (Mining Permit/Consent to Operate).
In compliance with the orders of the SC on 02.08 .2017, the State Government had raised a demand of Rs 18,169.14 crore on unlawful mining; for violation of EC/FC.
