Keonjhar: The District Magistrate court (DM) which had been hearing cases regarding the confiscation of properties of mining firms that had defaulted on penalties, ordered confiscation and auction of movable and immovable assets of BPME, a mining firm Saturday.
The BPME was imposed a penalty of nearly Rs 873.44 crore for illegal mining as assessed by the MB Shah Commission. The court also held hearing of 13 of 23 cases regarding mining firms again Saturday.
The Supreme Court had directed the state government to recover penalties from the scam-tainted mine owners. Many miners have deposited penalties while some others have not.
The Mines Department had moved the DM court for confiscation of their assets. Cases are going on against 31 mines owned by 23 agencies.
The court had served notices on nine miners to depose before it Saturday. Representatives of 13 firms were present in court while firms like Sharda, BC Dev Agrawal, DS Pradhan, BD Patnaik, BK Mohanty, TB Lala, Arjun Lodha, Mineral Trading Syndicate and Facor Mines did not turn up.
The next hearing will be held November 3. Some mining firms are waiting to get documents of their legal heirs. The cases will come up for hearing November 24.
Meanwhile, SC Padhi has deposited Rs 10 lakh online. It has totally deposited Rs 1.93 crore with the Mining Department. Notices have been served on BK Mohanty and Arjun Lodha mining firm, but they have not appeared in court.
Collector Ashish Thakre said that following the SC directive, hearing of 23 cases was completed under the OPDR Act. Miner Basudev Agrawal has died and the legal notice issued to him has returned. Meanwhile, his legal heir was notified to file a reply September 15.
Hearing of cases on Gandhamardan Sponge Industries, BPML, HG Pandya and Mala Ray was held September 1. Similarly, the case of Narayani and Sons was heard August 25.
It is learnt that as the hearing was underway, mine owners like Mala Ray, SC Padhi and MR Das deposited Rs 2.88 crore as penalty online.
The cases against eight mine leaseholders – SC Padhi, Mesco, Bhanj Minerals, Facor, Narayani and Sons, Mineral Trading Syndicate, BD Patnaik and SN Dasmohapatra – were heard August 8.
PNN
