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Bhubaneswar, Jan 17: As the January 31 deadline to obtain forest land within the lease area for five mines being operated by the public sector Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) is nearing, the state government has urged the Centre to extend the deadline by five more months.
“We have requested the Union government to extend the deadline to obtain clearance for the entire forest land within the lease area for five OMC mines, for another five months,” said Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Mallik.
The mines include two main chromite leases— South Kaliapani, Sukurangi and three iron ore mines –Daitari, Gandhamardhan (B) and Kurmitar, he said, adding, Kurmitar iron ore mine has already been shutdown.
All the five mines of OMC do not have the requisite forest clearance as of now and cannot be obtained within the January 31 deadline as the process is very cumbersome.
“We have urged the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to extend it as it involves raw material supply commitment to the industries,” the minister said.
Public hearing has already been conducted through 19 gram sabhas and another gram sabha will be conducted under Daitari mines region soon. This will be communicated to the MoEF accordingly, Mallik announced.
“For most of these mines, the forest diversion proposals are at various stages and will take some time. It is expected that by June 30, 2015 the approval of the Government of India for diversion of the entire forest area would be obtained by OMC. You are requested to consider relaxing stipulations and allow time to OMC till June 30 for diversion of entire forest land within five months so that the closed Kurmitar mines can start operation after execution of mining lease and four other mines will continue to operate,’’
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