Even though the Supreme Court had set December 31, 2017 as the deadline for collection of illegal mining fines, the State Government has so far collected only about Rs 8,062 crore against the targeted amount of Rs 17,576.17 crore.
The Government collected the amount from mining leaseholders’ as compensation towards illegally extracted iron and manganese ore between 2000-01 and 2010-11.
Earlier, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), appointed by the the Supreme Court to probe illegal mining in Odisha, had calculated the figure for excess mining beyond the limits approved under (EC) at Rs 17,576.17 crore.
The exact amount paid by the leaseholders can be known on January 1 as the final figure would take some time to reconcile in the account", said a senior official in the Steel and Mines Department.
The mining majors who have paid compensation include State PSU, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), Tata Steel, Rungta, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Indrani Patnaik, Kaypee Enterprises, Aryan Mining and Trading Corporation and Tarini Minerals and K N Ram.
Penalty burden on OMC was Rs 2,177.97 crore, which has been paid already, according to reports.
According to sources, the mining leaseholders had illegally extracted 215.5 million tonnes of iron and manganese ore between 2000-01 and 2010-11 violating forest and environment norms.
The Supreme Court in a judgment on August 2, 2017 had directed the Odisha Government to collect the cost of excess production from the defaulting miners.
After the Supreme Court recently ruled out any extension in deadline and also rejected the appeal for payments in installments, leaseholders stepped up efforts to deposit the penalty amount with the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
A SPV, OMBADC has been formed to step up developmental works in the Mining zones of the State. Collected funds will be utilized for the purpose.