A blanket ban on iron ore mines in Bellary—Hospet region of Karnataka will lead to abrupt stoppage of supplies to steel plants and leave lakhs of workers jobless, industry chamber Assocham said.
“Mining should be moved from the unorganised sector to the organised if it is to be done in a legal, scientific and environment—friendly manner,” Assocham said while appreciating the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend 19 entities because of illegal mining on the basis of a CEC report.
However, if the Supreme Court decides to suspend another 68 mines as was done in the case of 19 mines (earlier), then the industry would be left with only four to five mines, ASSOCHAM’s Secretary General D S Rawat said.
“The daily supply from four to five mines will not exceed 20,000 tonnes against the requirement of one lakh tones. As a result, the entire industry in the region will come to a grinding halt within two or three days and closure will become inevitable,” he added.
On April 29, the apex court had restrained 19 mines from carrying out mining operations and transportation of iron ore in the Bellary region of Karnataka.
It had also said that the court would also pass an order on another 68 mines that have been indicted by the apex court appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for violating rules in mining operations.
The CEC in its report filed on April 15 before the apex court had said that there had been illegal mining on colossal scale in the state, particularly in Bellary district with “active” connivance of officials of the departments concerned and also public representatives.
However, Assocham advocated that the apex court should ask the CEC to undertake a detailed review of iron ore mining leases so that those engaged in legal mining are allowed to continue operations.
“The best solution to the problem is that technical violations and illegal mining should be segregated in CEC’s report,” Rawat said, adding that the mines having technical violations should be given time to remove these violations.
He further said that mines’ failing to adhere to the deadline should be closed.
“There is apprehension that in case a conclusion is arrived at by the apex committee (CEC) without studying individual agreements and makes a prima—facie determination of illegality, it could result in wrongful closure of many mines,” the Assocham Secretary General said.
