Large cut in mining at Orissa
Following the Supreme Court's direction, mining has witnessed a sizeable decline in Odisha. The direction was to the miners for payment of compensation of Rs 17,576 crore for exceeding output beyond the quantum fixed under the environmental clearances. ASSOCHAM is seeking Centre's immediate intervention to resolve the issue in consultation with the state government, and cautioning that thousands of jobs are at stake. In February 2014, a writ petition was filed alleging illegal mining activities in Odisha and in May, 2014 Apex court had directed the Odisha Government to suspend operations of 102 mining lessees with a liberty given to the lessees to apply for resumption of mining operations by providing all the statutory clearances. in excess of environmental clearance, the Supreme Court in August 2, 2017 judgement directed the defaulting iron ore mining lease holders to deposit the compensation for production of minerals in excess of environmental clearance. There has been a visible decline in the production of iron ore as the mining operations of a lot of lessees who were unable to pay the compensation by 31st December, 2017 were suspended.
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