Congress targets BJD, BJP over royalty revision

BHUBANESWAR:  Even as the BJP and BJD indulged in war of words over transparency in iron ore mines auction in the State, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Thursday targeted the Centre and the State government for ignoring the recommendations of Shah Commission for a CBI probe into the mining scam. 

Addressing mediapersons here, former minister Panchanan Kanungo demanded that the Centre and the State government should also make public the funds collected through clean energy cess from coal and their utilisation so far. He alleged that the cess which was Rs 50 per tonne of coal during the UPA government has now increased to Rs 400 per tonne. He also criticised the State government for not maintaining transparency in the utilisation of district mineral funds (DMFs). 

Targeting the BJD for not raising the issue of revision of coal and other minerals, the Congress leader alleged that the ruling party in Odisha is hand-in-glove with BJP. Coal royalty was last revised in 2014 and it should have been done again in 2017, he added.