The Orissa government has constituted a five-member committee under the chairmanship of B Patnaik, director (mines), to prepare a report on the leasing of mines in the state. The report will be submitted to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court. The state steel & mines minister, Raghunath Mohanty, on Tuesday said the committee is going to submit its report by May 18.
Meanwhile, the ministry of railways has accepted the procedure laid down for loading of minerals from its sidings and booking rakes for transportation. With this, the indents for loading of minerals in railway rakes will be accepted by the railways only if the forwarding notes are duly validated by the authorised officer of the state mines department. On one forwarding note, indent for one rake will be accepted. On allotment of rake against duly validated indents, loading of minerals will be allowed if the consignor submits requisite transit permit (TP) issued by the authorised officer of the state mines department. Minerals for one rake should be sourced from the same mining circle.
