Centre plans overhaul of mining sector

When former Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde recentlymill to grind hard white winter wheat to flour said that vested interests were controlling the mining industry, he was not exaggerating, considering that India registered over 182,000 cases of illegal mining across 17 states in the last five years alone.

The Union government data show that Andhra Pradesh — the single largest contributor to the country’s mineral production of roughly Rs 1,28,000 crore — alone registered a 110 per cent increase in illegal mining cases in the last four years. The number of cases in Andhra rose to 11,590 in 2009 compared to 5,385 in 2006. The proposed amendment to the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act plans to tackle the issue of illegal mining, besides bringing other changes in the current functioning of the mining industry. The Bill proposes allowing states to set up special courts for prosecution of mining-related offences and giving more teeth to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), which serves as a sectoral regulator, by allowing it to take direct action in cases of illegal mining...