Industry Minister K.T. Rama Rao has directed the officials to register criminal cases against those indulging in illegal mining.
The Minister, who held a review meeting with Mining Department officials here on Friday, gave a series of instructions to them and said illegal mining activities should not be tolerated however influential a person might be. The officers informed the Minister that 354 inspections were carried out in the jurisdiction of Warangal, Hyderabad, Nizamabad regional offices and 79 violations were identified and action was being initiated against the offenders. The department also cancelled the 477 mining leases where no activity was taken up so far. Mr.Rao said that the Department of Mines should extensively use technical know-how in supervision and monitoring of mines such as geo-fencing, geo-tagging, satellite pictures, drones etc. The government would soon bring out a new mining policy incorporating the best practices in the country and a legislation would be passed.
He also made it clear that mines and sand reaches should be given on lease through e-auction alone and in future mining leases would be awarded through international auction instead of national auction. The department should actively promote use of rock sand to ensure ecological balance and a meeting should be convened with engineering heads of Irrigation and R&B departments to promote use of rock sand in the constructions taken up by them.
The Telangana State Mineral Development Corporation should also consider setting up a rock sand crusher. The sand taxi policy that was implemented on an experimental basis in various districts should be implemented across the State and there should be a transparent system in place to let one know the price of sand, he said.
The department earned ₹3,500 crore as against the target of ₹3,166 crore. Of this, revenue from sand was ₹538 crore against the target of ₹388 crore. The Minister disclosed that he would soon meet Union Ministers for Mines and Steel on the proposal to set up steel plant at Bayyaram. Mines Department Director Susheel Kumar, TSMDC MD Malsoor and other officials attended the meeting.
