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State needs to have a pro-poor minor mineral policy -Manas Jena
-The Pioneer

Bhubaneswar: With the increasing demand for building and construction materials in a rapid urbanisation and industrialisation process in the State, the use of minor minerals has been increasing. The housing and road communication projects, both in rural and urban areas and industrial hubs, have created huge demand for minor minerals that have raised concern for an effective minor mineral management policy.

It is a fact that in many areas there has been non implementation of laws and violation of provisions of the Central Government policy and court orders relating to mineral utilization in spite of provision of State power to make law over minor minerals management. While changes are taking place in the State economy with more focus on urbanisation and industrialisation and reform in mining sector, the State needs to review its current administrative procedure of minor minerals putting priority on the concern of environment, revenue and local area development.

The National Mineral Policy, 2008 and mineral policies in many States have reflected concern over minor minerals. Odisha has no mineral policy where as mineral bearing States like AP, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, MP and Rajasthan have their mineral policies. As minerals are broadly divided into two major categories under major and minor minerals, The Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act, 1957 which administer the mineral sector of the country has made provision under Section-15 of the Act saying the State Government may by notification in official gazette make rules for regulating the grant of quarry lease, mining lease or other mineral concession in respect of minor minerals and for purpose connected there with. The Government of Odisha has made Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1990, amended in 2004 and further amended it in September 2014. In its Schedule-1, minor minerals are listed in nine varieties, which include clay, sand, brick earth, moorum, sand stone, marble chips, road metals, decorative rocks, lime kankar and chalcedony shingles etc.

There are three departments Forest, Mines and Revenue which are involved in the minor mineral lease depending on the areas such as forest land, and mines area and revenue land respectively. The State Government has got Rs 202.65 crore as royalty from minor minerals in 2009-2010 which has been marginally increasing during last few years.

The Government has to revise the rate of revenue within three years of interval and the revenue includes royalty, dead rent, surface rent and fees for compensatory aforestation specified in Schedule-I and II of the rule. There has been no regular revision of royalty and rents by the State Government which caused huge loss of revenue from minor minerals sector. The rate was not amended from 2004 to 2013 and a study group was set up in September 2013.

In MP, Chhattisgarh and Kerala, the minor mineral lease has been given to the poor people, unemployed youths of BPL category and locals of marginalized groups as source of income and employment but this has not been thought up in Odisha with huge unemployment and distress migration of youths. The minor mineral quarries in most of the Panchayats are creating environmental problem for the local people by affecting the local eco system, forest, land and surface water management of the area.

Many of the quarries are abandoned as artificial ponds after extraction of minor minerals. No environmental procedure is followed in refilling the mines which causes problem for the grazing animals and general public. Both the mining operation and transportation causes inconvenience to the local public. The public places such as burial ground, village forest, temple land and places of archeological importance are occupied by lease holders in many ways without concern.

There are also a number of minor mineral processing units such as stone crushers operating in public road side which caused huge dust and sound pollution in the area. The loss of trees due to minor mineral mines is not being compensated with afforestartion. It has been observed that minor mineral lease has been awarded to the local influential people with backing of ruling parties and there has been no attempt to generate more revenue from minor mineral sector. The revenue collected from minor mineral is not spent for local area development.

As per the provision in rules the quarry lease shall be granted in favour of an applicant who has quoted the highest rate of royalty. The lease holder has to submit a mining plan for the development of the mineral deposits of the area. The mining plan should include the nature and extent of mineral body and spot of mining operation with details of the mineral reserve and extent of manual mining and use of machinery.

It should clearly specify the impact of mining on water, forest and land in the vicinity and a detail scheme of restoration of the area by afforestation, land reclamation and pollution control measures with a mining closer plan within five years. The lease clearance has to get the environment clearance as per the provisions of Union Forest and Environment Department. The Supreme Court in 2012 in the matter of Deepak Kumar etc Vs State of Haryana and others has passed an order that lease of minor minerals including their renewal for an area of less than five acres shall be granted by the State only after getting environmental clearance from the MoEF. The State level impact assessment authority has to give the clearance.

There shall be no mining activities in a distance of 50 meters from water bodies, public road, temple, reservoir, dams, burial ground, railway track, and public building and the mining activities should not cause any damage to private or public properties. The case of river bed sand mining and environmental regulations has been mentioned separately. There is restriction on lease area which should not be more than 100 hectares as a cluster in development block.

The rules have made provision of Environment Management Fund (EMF) at State level out of five per cent of the royalty for reclamation and rehabilitation of mined out area. The fund will be utilized for provisions of common facilities for the benefit of community in and around the mining area. The State has setup Environment Management Fund Trust at Bhubaneswar for the purpose.

It has been suggested that the revenue fund should be used for the local community development. The lease for minor minerals should be given to Panchayats and cooperative of local people as it is the natural right of the local people over the local resources. The Kerala State Mineral Policy, 2009 has given priority on SCs and STs, while granting lease in revenue land and there is mining area welfare programme for the local community. Chhattisgarh has made provision to provide minor mineral lease to cooperative societies formed by BPL of SC, ST, OBC and women and unemployed youths and revenue of minor minerals goes to the panchyats. The PESA Act, 1996 allows Gramasabha the power to lease minor minerals in scheduled areas but Odisha this power is with Zilla Parisad. AP, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and MP have the provision of prior recommendation of Garamasabha for grant of lease of minor minerals.

The Samata Judgment of 1997 by the Supreme Court has suggested to spend about 20 per cent of the net profit on water, education, health and sanitation of the local communities in scheduled areas. Gujarat has made provision to spend a major portion of the royalty from minor minerals in the district. The Government of Odisha has wiped out royalty over minor minerals used for MGNREGS, IAY and Mo Kudia on items such as earth, bricks, sand, chips and moorum but this is not enough. The Government of Odisha should look at the policies of other States and follow their best practices for the interest of the poor people.

The Government should review the lease administration of minor minerals and streamline the monitoring procedure of revenue collection and environmental management with local area development.

(The writer is rights activist who can be contacted at ojaabbsr@gmail.com)