The government has extended the tenure of Justice M B Shah panel studying the issue of illegal mining in Karnataka and other states just days after it missed the deadline to submit its report.
A meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday cleared the proposal for the extension of the tenure of the Justice M B Shah Commission of Inquiry for another year.The panel was constituted on November 22 last and was to have submitted its report on July 16.
The commission was set up to identify cases of illegal mining in Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Madhya Pradesh and to suggest measures for rectifying management, regulatory and monitoring system failures.“The extension has been sought since the commission is collecting and compiling information on mining from seven important mineral producing states, which is quite voluminous,” an official statement said. An additional expenditure of Rs 50 lakh will be incurred on the exchequer due to extension.
