Karnataka to request SC to raise cap on iron ore produce

To seek production raise of  10 mt 

The Karnataka government would file an affidavit in the Supreme Court, requesting that the cap on permissible production of iron ore be raised to 40 million tonnes from 30 million tonnes currently, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Saturday.

“Supreme Court has put a cap of 30 million tonnes iron ore production; .....we are filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court to increase it from 30 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes,” he told reporters here.

“If Supreme Court raises the cap we will be able to meet the current shortfall of industry’s requirement,” he said while announcing the three-day CII Partnership Summit- 2014 to be held here from January 27.

Karnataka is the partner state for CII Partnership Summit 2014.

On the misconception that mining is banned in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said only those 51 mining leases categorised under ‘C’ category as per recommendations of CEC had been cancelled.

“Those holding ‘A’ category, ‘B’ category licences are continuing mining; .....cabinet has decided to re-auction these mines (‘C’ category) again,” he added.

Stating that his government’s aim was to make Karnataka the most preferred investment destination in India, he said “Karnataka is already one of the 10 preferred investment destinations in the world; ....we are going to achieve this through new industrial policy.”

“We will give all support and cooperation to investors to invest in Karnataka. There is abundant availability of skilled and unskilled manpower in the state; we will give land, water, power; if there are big investments we will give tax concessions,” he added.

Siddaramaiah said that after taking over as Chief Minister he had convened three high-level meetings and already cleared some projects. “Around Rs 44,000 crore worth projects have been cleared so far,” he said.

“We want investments to happen in other parts of the state also like Hubli, Mangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga.”

Listing out investment projects cleared by government since Congress came to power in May, a top government official said Asian Paints has taken possession of 125 acres near Mysore to set up a 70,000 tonne plant, Toshiba Electric would set up a plant near Tumkur at Rs 290 crore investment, while Japanese firm NPR would set up a auto component plant at a cost of Rs 170 crore near Narasapur, Kolar.”