BHUBANESWAR: While the Congress and the BJP on Friday made the BJD Government responsible for the multi-crore mining scam in the State, Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei tried to deflect the blame to the Centre by alleging that more Central laws were violated. Participating in a debate on “Who is responsible for the misutilisation of the mining resources of the State?” during the second annual OTV convention ‘Foresight’ here, the Finance Minister said the State Government has initiated several steps to check theft of mineral resources. Only 117 out of 600 mines are in operation as the Government has clamped down on illegal mines, Ghadei said and added trading licences of 370 mines have been suspended and that of 386 cancelled. Ghadei said the Centre can’t be absolved from all blame as more Central laws have been violated. The Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), a Central Government agency, is also not free from blame, he said. Several instances of inaction on its part have come to the fore. Reiterating the demand for raising the rate of royalty on minerals to 30 per cent from existing 10, Ghadei said may be the Centre is not taking any action in this regard under pressure from the strong mining lobby. Addressing the convention, OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik reiterated the demand for a CBI probe into the mining scam. When states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have agreed to CBI probe, why not Odisha, he asked. Niranjan said the team from the Shah Commission was not taken to places where there were instances of rampant theft. It was taken to safer places, he said. Criticising the Government for giving thousands of trading licences, he said by keeping a lid on it, 80 per cent of thefts can be checked.The OPCC president also differed on the demand to ban export of iron ore. Till 30 per cent of fines are utilised in the State, export should go on, he said. Criticising the MoU-signing spree of the Government, Niranjan said this is not based on realistic assessment of mineral requirement. BJP national executive member Bijay Mohapatra said deficit of moral values and governance has led to the present situation. Stating that the loot of mineral resources is unbridled, Mohapatra said 326 million tonne iron ore were produced between 1947 and 2000 while it went up to 545 million tonne from 2000 to 2011. Referring to a High Court judgment which said the State Government does have any policy on minerals, Mohapatra said the CAG had also pointed out irregularities in the mining sector in his reports for 2003-04 and 2005-06. But no corrective action was taken by the Government. It is also first time in history that a file went missing from the Department of Mines and a FIR was lodged, he said. Mohapatra alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also did not consider a letter written by 60 MLAs, cutting across partylines, who demanded a ban on iron ore export. Now when everything is over, the Government says corrective steps will be taken, he said.What can be more reflective of the governance deficit in the State than this when the Finance Minister welcomed the Chief Secretary for the mineral transport policy formulated by the Government, he asked. Former director of Mines BK Mohanty said the slander campaign against the mining sector should be stopped. He said despite one of the highest revenue earners, the mining infrastructure has been a victim of Government neglect. The budget of the Department should be raised from the present ` 40 crore, he said.Referring to the large number of pending applications for mining leases and renewals, Mohanty said this is one of the reasons behind illegal mining. In Odisha, 14,000 applications out of 49,000 in the country are pending, he said.
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