Bhubaneswar: September 21: The mining leases auctioned recently have been fast tracked with Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi taking a review of the projects in State Facilitation Committee meeting held under his chairmanship in secretariat conference hall today wherein Principal Secretary Steel & Mines Sri Raj Kumar Sharma outlined the issues for discussion. Taking project wise review Chief Secretary Sri Padhi directed the concerned departments to expedite the process for issue of various clearances and approvals for starting the mining operations. Required tasks against each project were identified and Chief Secretary set time lines for completion of the tasks by the departments like revenue & disaster management, forest & environment, steel & mines and State pollution control board. Collectors and Divisional Forest Officers were also asked to facilitate the process expeditiously. .Sri Padhi further advised the Steel & Mines Department to step up preparations for auction of more mines in coming months.
The progress of 5 mining lease projects reviewed in the meeting. These included Ghoraburhani-Sagasahi ironore block of Sundargarh district, Kottametta limestone block in Malkangiri district, Laserda-Pacheri manganese ore block in Keonjhar district, Kalamanga west iron block in Keonjhar & Sundargarh district and Netrabandha iron block of Sundargarh district.
The issues relating to forest clearances, environmental clearances, DGPS survey, approval of mining plan, wild life management plan, land acquisition, organization of Gram Sabha, land mutation, railway siding approval, working permission etc were discussed and resolved in the meeting. Target was also set to step up the preparations for auction of 6 more mines by end of October of the current year.
Additional Chief Secretary Forest & Environment Sri Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Principal Secretary Steel & Mines Sri Raj Kumar Shrama, PCCF Wild Life Sri Sandeep Tripathy, Member State Pollution Control Board Sri Debidatta Biswal, Director Mines Sri Deepak Mohanty, Joint Secretary Revenue & Disaster Management Sri Avaya Kumar Nayak along with senior officers from concerned departments participated in the discussions.
