Bhubaneswar, Mar 21: Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallik in the Odisha Assembly informed that even after e-auction of the mining blocks, mining theft still goes on. He presented facts that 89 illegal mining activities have been caught by the Directorate of Mines this year. The Directorate of Mines has seized 30,537.715 metric tonnes mineral resources and 10 vehicles. A fine of Rs 35.96 lakh towards this has been collected by the District level squad. Similarly State level Enforcement Squad has caught 1,161 illegal mining activities. In total 18 vehicles have been seized in both the incidents. Other than that, the State level Enforcement Squad has seized 99.36 metric tonne mineral resources and eight vehicles. It has also collected Rs 46.21 lakh fine.
