CEC nod to resume mining operations in State
Iron ore mining in Karnataka is set to restart with the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on Thursday giving the green signal to ‘A category’ of mines in the State to resume operations, provided they have all approvals in place.
In the report submitted to the apex court, the panel said a system of effective checks and balances has been put in place to ensure that mining takes place in a scientific manner. A total 18 mines come under category A, which recorded least irregularities or no irregularities, and of which one mine has all the approvals required.
Another 12 will be eligible to resume mining after receiving statutory approvals. However, the rest of the five mining leases are not eligible to restart operations even after they obtain all approvals, the CEC report says.
A three-judge bench of the apex court led by Justice Aftab Alam is likely to take up the matter for disposal on Friday.
Mining in the ore-rich districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur was stopped in April 2011 after the Supreme Court direction, following large-scale illegalities. However, the court allowed the State-run NMDC to excavate the ore and supply to steel plants located in Karnataka.
Besides, the panel also said that an “effective system of checks and balances has been put in place to ensure that mining is not undertaken in unscientific and environmentally unsustainable manner, and wanted all rehabilitation and reclamation (R and R) plans to be timely implemented.”
The expert panel said that the mines can resume operations only if they have statutory approvals. Even the continuation of mining operations is linked to the successful execution of the environmental management plan which is part of the R and R plan, said the report. The CEC also suggested that mining leaseholders found to be involved in illegal excavation of ore are not eligible to restart operations.
Earlier, the apex court had asked for CEC’s views on the request of companies to resume mining, as they had claimed that they were not involved in illegalities. The court had asked the expert panel to submit its recommendations.
However, Samaj Parivartan Samudaya, the Dharwad-based NGO which is the petitioner, had pleaded that mining should not be restarted, citing that some of the companies in category A were also involved in violations in removal of ore earlier. On this, the CEC said “the leases have been dealt with on the basis of illegalities found in each of them and not on the basis of the illegalities in other leases of the same lessee and or other allegations.”