Orissa government decided to conduct an intensive joint raid and constitute committee under the Chairmanship of the Additional Secretary of Steel and Mines Department to check the theft of minerals.
State Chief Secretary T K Mishra will soon write letters to the Director General of Police, Collector, Mines Department and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest to conduct joint raids outside lease area to prevent the smuggling of minerals from the state.
The decision was taken at the state-level Task Force meeting held under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary here.
After the meeting, Steel and Mines Secretary A K Dalwai told newspersons that a decision was also taken for the verification of documents both at the generating and the consumption point of minerals to check the theft and smuggling of minerals in view of the allegation of wide-scale smuggling of mineral ores.
Instruction was given to field staff in October 2009 to verify the documents of the Renewal Mining Lease (RML) applications.
Mr Dalwai said so far out of the 639 applications for renewal of mining lease, the verification of 134 applications had been completed and the mining operations in 63 mines were suspended.
Similarly, at the consumption point, out of the 2,412 license issued, as many as 644 had been verified. Out of the 644 verified license, as many as 482 license were suspended, including cancellation and surrender for the violation of the Rule 7 of the OMPTS Rule, 2007 and MDR Act for theft and smuggling.
He said the Task Force decided to constitute a committee under the Chairmanship of the Additional Secretary of Steel and Mines Department to computerise the check gates and weigh bridges to check smuggling of ores.
Mr Dalwai said earlier three high-power committees had already been constituted to check the smuggling of minerals from the state.
While a committee had been constituted under the Chairmanship of the Commissioner Commercial Tax to set up integrated check gates and to improve the weigh bridges, another committee had been formed under the Chairmanship of Commissioner Commerce and Transport to gather revenue intelligence.
A Rationalising Committee, headed by Executive Director of Orissa Mining Corporation, was formed to initiate steps for the strengthening of staff strength in weigh bridges and the check gates, he said.
Filed under: Central Government, Economy, Government, National, crime, people, police
