Govt may come out with new policy on minerals allocation

The new coal mining policy is likely to set the tone for more transparent schemes in mining of other minerals and give more regulatory powers to state governments.

Updated on: Oct 22, 2014, 07:15:15 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The new coal mining policy, which proposes e-auction of blocks to private companies, is likely to set the tone for more transparent schemes in mining of other minerals and give more regulatory powers to state governments.

The Centre is likely to come out with a uniform policy on the allocation of minerals for mining purposes, in a bid to check illegal mining.

The mines ministry would bring in changes to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act in the winter session of Parliament to introduce e-auction for mining sites across India, a senior ministry official told HT.

The process of allocating leases and mining activity would also be made more transparent, and regulatory framework more robust.

“The amendments will delegate more power to state governments in regulating the mining business, and the concept of buying and selling mining rights will also be introduced with certain conditions,” the official said.

The ministry is also working on using a satellite-based technology for monitoring mining operations across India with the help of state governments, to check illegal mining in several states including Goa, Odisha, Jharkhand Karnataka.

According to estimates of the Supreme Court-appointed MB Shah panel, minerals worth Rs. 50,000 crore have been illegally mined in Odisha alone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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