Orissa to formulate Mining policy soon - Minister

Bhubaneswar, Mar 22 (UNI) The Orissa government will formulate the new Mining policy soon taking into account the consideration of the Hooda Committee, State Steel and Mines Minister Padmanav Behera told the Assembly today.

The state government would also like to have a consensus in the matter with the Centre, Mr Behera said while replying to a question of Congress member Satya Bhusan Sahu.

The Minister said since 2000 the government had recommended mining lease in favour of 20 companies of which the Centre had accorded approval in respect of eleven companies, while the rest nine companies were asked to comply with the necessary condition to obtain forest and environment clearance.

To a supplementary question by Congress member L B Mohapatra, he said although no mining policy had been formulated so far yet the government had decided in principle to recommend mining lease in favour of those companies which would go for value addition and invest at least 25 per cent of their projected cost for setting up the plant.

Mr Behera said so far 24 steel companies, which had signed the MoU, had started partial production in the state and the state government had recommended mining lease in favour of five companies.

The Centre had approved mining lease of one company, and the other four proposals were under process.

To another question, he clarified that the government had not granted any mining lease in favour of the POSCO but only recommended for prospecting license.

UNI