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Goyal to talk to Odisha for Posco revival
NEW DELHI: As Piyush Goyal takes over the ministry of mines his biggest challenge will be the multiple lawsuits that plague the sector.
NEW DELHI: As Piyush Goyal takes over the ministry of mines his biggest challenge will be the multiple lawsuits that plague the sector.
Some of the biggest investments in mining such as Vedanta’s and Posco’s steel plants in Odisha, have been stuck. Each involved investment commitments of around ₹50,000 crore. “I plan to talk to the state government and see what can be done with the projects. But if the local residents are against it then we cannot do much, our priority is the people living there,” said Goyal.
The focus is on better exploitation of India’ s mineral resources while keeping rehabilitation in mind. “The District Mineral Foundation (DMF) will change the way rehabilitation is envisaged for mining districts of India,” said Goyal.
DMFs would raise funds from the miners in the respective district and utilise it for local development. Their corpus would be ₹6,000 crore a year. Under the pilot project taken up in Chhattisgarh, ₹30 crore would be spent on rehabilitation work in five villages.
In the cabinet reshuffle last week, Goyal was given additional charge of the ministry of mines along with power, coal and renewable energy.
In his first press conference after taking over from Narendra Singh Tomar, Goyal had emphasised the need for transparency in the ministry. “Everything from initiatives, feedback to stakeholder questions should be put on our website. We will also have an app to showcase all information about mining and the sector” said the minister.
Goyal knows that the biggest obstacles will be from states. “Transparent communication is the key. Every state government wants to get re-elected; reforming the mining sector will help them create jobs and increase revenue,” said the minister.
Of India’s entire obvious geological potential (OGP) area, identified by Geological Survey of India, only 10% has been explored and mining is taking place in 1.5-2% of this area.
Goyal has promised to increase the share of mineral production in gross domestic production( GDP) by one percentage point in two years from 2.4% now. To meet this end the mines ministry has already identified about 50 atomic and about 100 others blocks for auctions, which will start in the next 4-5 months.
