States told to set up cells to curb illegal mining

“The state governments had been advised to establish special anti-extortion and anti-money laundering cells to prevent nexus between illegal mining/forest contractors, transporters and extremists,” Mines Minister Dinsha Patel said in Lok Sabha on Friday.

He said 21 state governments have constituted task force at the district and state levels for monitoring illegal mining. “The state governments detected 78,189 cases of illegal mining of minor and major minerals during the year 2010-11 as compared to 69,316 cases detected in the year 2009-10,” Patel said.

The minister said state governments have also been advised to set up State Coordination cum Empowered Committee (SCEC) to coordinate efforts to control illegal mining by including representatives from railways, customs and ports.

Committee set up
Apart from this, a central committee has also been set up to monitor matters pertaining to illegal mining. Also, the Indian Bureau of Mines-appointed special task force had conducted inspections in endemic areas through the help of satellite imageries.

“The special task force has conducted inspections in a total of 434 mines in the states of Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat,” he said.

While the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) had suspended 152 mines after the inspection, suspension was revoked after compliance of the rules in case of 96 mines, he added.