Bhubaneswar: The final collection of fine money in the account of Odisha government from the miners amounts to Rs 8289 crore by the closing day on December 31, 2017. Seven mines in operational state were issued suspension order as they failed to meet the deadline.
As per government disclosure 72 out of 131 penalised lease holders have deposited their fine.
Odisha government, as the director of Mines Deepak Kumar mohanty said, submitted the status report regarding the fine collection to the Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee on Tuesday before the next hearing scheduled on January 17.
Odisha government, complying with the Supreme Court direction had issued demand notice of Rs17576 crore to 131 mines for over extraction of minerals. December 31 was the last date for fine deposit.
Four lease holders – East Int. Steel Ltd’s Mesco (Roida mines), IDC ( Roida mines), Corp Resources (Tantra mines), National Enterprises (Raikila mines) have not paid their fine at all while three- Serajuddin for Balda block iron mines, Essel Mining for Koida mines and OMM for Patakada mines have paid part of their penalty money.
All seven mines are served closure notice.
With more than half of the fine money is still remaining unpaid Government’ next course of action on the defaulters will be in accordance with the direction of the Supreme Court who is going to undertake the next haring on 17th of this month.
Some of the companies are in the Supreme Court expecting relaxation or excuse on the payment of fine though the apex court on its direction on August 2 was quite strict to consider such requests from the lease holders.
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