The Centre has asked mineral rich states to constitute empowered panels on the pattern of inter-ministerial committees to check the menace of illegal mining.

The state-level empowered committees (SLEC) headed by chief secretaries will monitor mining activities in the states, said the communication sent by the Ministry of Mines to states.

The ministry also constituted a national level empowered committee headed by its secretary to monitor the mining activities across the country. The states have also been asked to ensure that the SLECs meet regularly so that all important state-level issues like prevention of illegal mining, pendency of concession cases are attended to promptly.

According to a Ministry official, about 99,000 cases of illegal mining were reported in 20 states in the last fiscal as against 96,000 in 2011-12 and about 78,000 in 2010-11.