With a bill to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 likely to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament, Orissa government today said it would ask the Centre to incorporate value addition clause in it.
“I will meet finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi on Monday to discuss the MMDR Act and value addition issue,” Chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters before leaving for a visit to Mumbai and Delhi.
Mr. Patnaik, scheduled to fly to Delhi from Mumbai, would also meet Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal during his stay at the national capital.
Stating that value addition clause in the bill to amend MMDR Act was essential for mineral bearing States, the Chief Minister said he would draw the Finance minister’s attention. Mr. Mukherjee is heading a Group of Minister (GoM) that finalised the bill.
Orissa’s industrialisation process which was mostly based on the value addition policy, could be affected if it was not part of the new Bill, a senior official in the steel and mines department here said.
This apart, the State government also supported a move to give sizable benefit to the local people in the mines area.
Tribal population in the State will mostly get benefit if it is part of the new bill, Mr. Patnaik said.
On his purpose of meeting with Mr. Sibal, the Chief Minister said that he would demand more funds for proper implementation of the Right To Education Act in the State.
Though the State government had recently demanded about Rs 900 crore for implementation of the RTE ACt, the centre sanctioned only Rs 225 crore.
