Bhubaneswar: The state government is ready with the modalities for recovery of 100 per cent penalty from mining firms for having carried out illegal mining as ordered by the Supreme Court.
The government had accepted the apex court appointed-Central Empowered Committee (CEC)’s estimation of Rs 17,576 crore to be recovered from miners towards violation of environment clearance (EC).
According to the modalities, another round of meeting will be held at the directorate of mines jointly with participation from Forest and Environment department to work out the details of violation of the forest clearance and mineral production. The pricing formula of CEC will also be adopted in this meeting.
The CEC assessed the excess production in violation of environment clearance for 148 mining leases at 215.51 million tonnes valued at Rs 17,575 crore. While Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick has stated that notices will be sent after receiving the account details from the Finance department where the penalty will be deposited, the modalities fixed by the government say that the Chief Secretary will submit an affidavit before the apex court before September 30 for these accounts in which the lessees will deposit the compensation amounts.
As per the modalities, the officials will request the CEC for constitution of a committee of officers for joint survey in case of 82 mines to find out the actual amounts of penalty to be collected from them.
The Forest and Environment department, meanwhile, will take steps to decide on the 16 cases of forest clearance violations within a period of four weeks. Stating that the working mines have not been disallowed from working until the payment of the demand by December 31, 2017, the modalities said as regards 102 closed mines, reoperation may be considered only after compliance with the statutory requirements and full payment of compensation and other dues by December 31, 2017.
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