By first putting wrong dates on the lease renewal communication sent recently to the Jadugoda mine of Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) and then by keeping quiet on the worth of the stamp paper the corporation would have to buy for the lease renewal deed, Jharkhand?s mines and geology department is allegedly denying the PSU the opportunity to recommence work quickly at its best ore mine in the region.
As UCIL?s 1,312-acre Jadugoda mine, the country?s first uranium mine among its seven here, became operational in October 1967, the PSU?s first lease renewal (for a 20-year period) should have taken place in October 1987, while its second renewal for another 20 years should have occurred in October 2007 (up to October 2027).
However, the mines and geology department, in its recent communication to the UCIL management, said it had decided to regularise its first lease renewal up to October 2007 and would make the second renewal for a period of 20 years from the date of signing the deal (in October 2014), thus leaving unaccounted a gap of seven years from October 2007 to October 2014. The department is now said to be correcting the error committed by it.
UCIL had applied for both first and second lease renewals in September 2006, of which the department allegedly took no action till the recent turmoil in the mining industry arising from the Supreme Court order of May 16 and the subsequent issuance of mine closure notices to around 21 mines in the state.
When told the corporation must now be readying to buy the requisite stamp paper for the renewal deed, UCIL chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) D Acharya said: ?That will happen only after they give us clearance. We wrote back the very next day (after getting the department?s letter) requesting them to tell us what value of stamp paper we should buy, which they are not able to calculate? it is something they should have done 27 years back. Mining has to start immediately and it has not yet started (since the closing down order of September 6), that?s the problem.?
It is also worth mentioning that while the Jharkhand government has lately issued lease renewal offer letters to several iron ore mining entities for renewal of their pending leases by way of putting, among others, a stiff penalty clause which asks them to pay up at market price the value of the minerals mined by them ?illegally? i.e from the date their lease renewal fell due to the current date, UCIL had been the sole beneficiary whose lease renewal application was okayed by the Jharkhand cabinet and later passed by the mines and geology department without imposing the penalty clause.