Odisha govt, miners try to reconcile mismatch in extraction figures

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Aug 14:

Officials of the Mines department of the Odisha government and 187 mine lessees are engaged in an exercise to reconcile figures on ore extraction from mines in the state here today.

It may be noted that wide variations were found in the extraction data provided by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), mine lease holders and the state government during the recent hearing of the Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in New Delhi.

The meeting between the state government and the mine leaseholders is being held on the advice of the CEC as it found discrepancies in the data provided by the lease holders, IBM and state government.

Sources said the CEC had advised the state government to get the figures reconciled with the miners and then provide a report to it on the basis of the reconciled figures.

A representative of the RP Sau mines, who spoke to newsmen outside the meeting venue, said miners provide administrative returns on ore extraction to the state government’s Mines department on a monthly basis and an annual return to the IBM on the extraction of ore as per the mining plan.

He said today’s meeting was being held for resolution of the discrepancies in the figures as pointed out by the CEC .

Rungta Mines was the first miner to be called by the state government to present facts about its extraction in the meeting which began at around 11 am today. The representative of the Rungta mine,s however, avoided the media on completion of his meeting.

The meeting is expected to last till late in the evening today as only a few miners out of the 187 have completed the hearing in the first three hours.