Orissa mine scam could be worth more than Rs 14k cr
Debabrata Mohanty
Tags : Orissa mine scam, Orissa Pollution Control Board, Environment
Impact Assessment, PV Jayakrishnan
Posted: Saturday , Nov 14, 2009 at 1140 hrs
Bhubaneswar:
While Orissa vigilance sleuths and mines department officials are
scratching their heads trying to find out the extent and dimensions of
the mining scam, official documents reveal that the magnitude of the
scam could be anything over Rs 14000 crore.
The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court headed by former
bureaucrat PV Jayakrishnan would soon start investigating the
violation of forest laws following a petition by Orissa-based
journalist Rabi Das.
However, CEC chairman Jayakrishnan said the panel has not got the
formal notification of the probe order as yet. "We will decide about
the modalities of the probe and the dates after we see the
notification," he told The Indian Express.
But the fact is that the scam goes beyond violation of forest laws
only. Evidence available with The Indian Express shows the real scam
was mining in excess of the limits set by the authorities. This
violated the existing environmental laws.
Documents brought under the RTI Act showed that over last 6-7 years
more than dozen leading mining and steel companies dug out excessive
quantities of iron, chromite and manganese ores in wanton disregard of
existing laws and limits. It's no secret they could do it due to lax
supervision of officials of the Orissa Pollution Control Board, Indian
Bureau of Mines, state mines department, forest department, district
collector and Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Any mining company before digging up even a handful of earth in the
ore-rich areas has to obtain a Consent to Operate (CTO) certificate
from the Orissa Pollution Control Board which stipulates the amount of
ore that can be mined in a year. The limit is specified with an eye on
collateral environmental damage that mining brings as the waste and
overburden (the earth that needs to be excavated for extracting the
ore) is normally 3-5 times of the actual mineral.
When environmental clearance is granted to any mine, the maximum
amount of ore which can be mined per year is specified. The quantity
of ore that is to be extracted every year is specified in the mining
plan which is approved by the IBM. Accordingly, when the Environment
Impact Assessment (EIA) study is carried out the likely impacts on the
local environment are assessed based on the quantity of ore to be
extracted every year.
Documents obtained from the Orissa Pollution Control Board and
interviews with officials in the State mining department show that the
biggest violator could be Aditya Birla Group-owned Essel Mining and
Industries Limited. Between 2001-02 and 2005-06, the company mined 206
lakh tonnes of iron ore in excess of its permitted limit of 25.86 lakh
tonnes in just 2 mines(Kasia and Jiling-Longalata) of Keonjhar
district. By conservative estimates, the total amount of the excess
iron ore mined was Rs 4269 crores.
Essel Mining seemed to care two hoots about possible closure of the
mines for violation of the OPCB norms. Though a closure notice was
issued by the OPCB's regional office in Keonjhar district on January
24, 2006 for violating the conditions and running two screening plants
inside the forest area without mandatory environmental clearance, it
did not shut shop. The OPCB also did not press further and did not
close the mines.
Ardhendu Mohapatra, the chief residential manager of Essel Mining in
Orissa said he was not authorized to comment but added that the
company had all the statutory clearances in places. "We have not
violated any laws," he said.
Another major player, SR Rungta Group similarly mined iron ore and
manganese in excess of the limit they were allowed by the OPCB. By
conservative estimates, the total amount of the excess iron ore mined
by the group companies between 2003 and 2006 in 6 of its mines was Rs
2978 crores. Like Essel Mining, Rungta Mines was also not shut in
spite of OPCB norm violations. On Dec 18, 2006, the Ministry of
Environment and Forests informed the Orissa government about
illegal/excessive extraction of iron ore in 6 mines of Rungtas.
A designated committee of the OPCB had also found that excess mining
was going on and had ordered closure of at least two mines on March 1,
2007. But the OPCB Chairman at Bhubaneswar did not issue the closure
order. None of the officials of Rungta were available for comment.
Similarly, documents revealed that the Thakurani B mines owned by SL
Sarda and ML Sarda in Keonjhar with a controlling interest by Jindal
Steel and Power Limited mined iron ores in excess of the specified
limit worth Rs 1850 crore. Evidence shows that Tata Steel, which has
chromite and iron ore mines in Sukinda(Jajpur district) and Joda East
(Keonjhar) respectively mined ores worth Rs 1200 crore between 2004-05
and 2007-08.
Even the IMFA group promoted by BJD MP Jay Panda, mined excess
chromite ore worth Rs 50 crore in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Officials of
Tata Steel and IMFA denied that the companies had violated any
provisions of mining and environmental laws.
It appears that even the government companies are no holy saints since
Orissa Mining Corporation was found to have mined 9.63 lakh tonnes of
excess chromite from its South Kaliapani mines in Jajpur district.
During the period between 2004 and 2008, the market value of the
excess ore is estimated at Rs 105 crore.
Incredibly OPCB suddenly raised the limits of ore production of the
companies in a subsequent year even though the company had violated
the consent to operate conditions in the past. No penal action was
taken against them. It also appears that OPCB officials never applied
their mind to assess the disastrous effects on the local environment
by allowing companies to increase their production by 10-20 times from
the previous levels.
Orissa steel and mines secretary Ashok Dalwai said he was not aware if
excess mining has taken place in Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts.
"It has not been proved as yet whether excess mining took place. But
we have to verify case by case and see if the companies had got their
mining plans modified by the Indian Bureau of Mines. But we are
looking into more important facts of the case," said Dalwai.
This is surprising since the field inspection reports of the Pollution
Control Board clearly pointed out the huge scam which was going on
right under every body's nose. Clearly the Mining Department and the
Pollution Control Board did not exchange information.
LN Patnaik, who headed the Orissa Pollution Control Board between 2004
and 2008 (when some of the excess mining happened) said he does not
remember what happened during those period. "It (excess mining) may be
possible, but under what circumstances it happened I can't say," he
said.
Meanwhile the director of Orissa vigilance, Anup Patnaik said the
agency would take several months before it can file a chargesheet. "We
are still assessing the magnitude of the scam. So far we have lodged 3
cases and may lodge more in the coming days. We will not spare anybody
whosoever is involved in the scam," said Patnaik.
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