Maharashtra Government has constituted a committee under Chief Secretary to streamline procedures for granting clearances for excavation and transportation of minerals post their auction. The nine-member committee is to meet once in three months, take stock of the ground situation and take review of any delay at any of the mine blocks faced by the contracted firm. Post stock taking and going through the reports submitted by various agencies and their explanations, the committee has to be suggest to Government measures that are needed at administrative level to remove the bottlenecks, either through policy measures or through legislative route.

 

The note issued by Department of Mines raised serious concerns as to inordinate delay faced in giving clearances, especially by Department of Forests and Department of Water Resources that has led to adverse effect on royalty receipts of State. Due to delay in extraction of minerals and resultant delay in deposits of payment of royalty by the firms, the contribution to Prime Minister Mineral Development Scheme has dipped.

 

The scenario, in turn, affects the development project whose commissioning deadline gets postponed causing additional financial burden on the State. Therefore, State has desired a closer co-operation between all wings of Government so that post completion of auction, the contractors must not face unnecessary delay. Another major delay that is flagged relates to land acquisition. It is a tedious procedure, and though from time to time, review is held at the level of Directorate of Geology and Mining, apart from State and Central Government of the sites for which e-auction is conducted. As per the laid down procedure, after the review, Directorate of Geology and Mining, Nagpur, submits a letter post scrutiny of the application of winning firm for grant of approval. Yet it has been observed, the contractor faces hurdles in getting clearance to start the operation to extract the minerals and transport it to the listed sites. On receipt of reports from the firms about the same, State noticed the anomaly and hence, expects the committee to set a format that would ensure faster clearances post approvals.

 

In the said note, Department of Mines also referred to communication from Union Ministry of Mines, New Delhi, on September 2 and 26, that flagged the shortfall in State’s contribution in Mining Welfare Fund. Hence, after deliberations, it was decided to task Chief Secretary to take a relook of the proforma and procedures relating to grant of clearance and steps that can be taken to bring about transparency in the same. The committee will have Members from Department of Mines, Forests, Water Resources Department, Revenue Department, Department of Environment and Climate Change, (either Secretary/Principal Secretary/Additional Chief Secretary), and invited Members will be respective District Collector related to Mine area, nominee of Indian Bureau of Mines, while Director General, Directorate of Geology and Mining, will act as Member Secretary. The task allotted to committee is to meet once in three months and thereafter, Director General will hold monthly meeting with stakeholders and submit the report to the Government.