Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy today directed the Revenue and Disaster Management department to identify and operationalise new sairat sources for filling the gap between demand and supply of minor minerals.
Tripathy said, “Enhancement of legally operational sources will have triple benefit of ensuring supply of material for construction sector which is quite labour intensive, containing the theft of minor minerals and increasing the collection of revenue.”
The Chief Secretary was addressing a review meeting on minor minerals at the Lok Seva Bhavan here today. The Government has decided to permit inter-state transportation of sands through competitive bidding process.
The Chief Secretary instructed to identify sand rich river beds on the banks of major rivers and prepare scientific plans for sand mining. “Scale up annual revenue generation to Rs 1,000 crore from minor minerals,” he said.
“Strengthen enforcement to check theft of minor minerals. The Collectors and Police Superintendents were directed to utilize the services of Odisha Industrial Security Force (OISF) and intensify squad activities,” said Tripathy adding that illegal minors and transporters should be dealt with strongly.
According to reports, in the first phase, 10 sections of OISF have been provided at 10 locations in eight minor mineral rich districts. These include, Cuttack Sadar, Baranga, Jaleswar, Anandapur, Chhtrapur, Bhanjanagar, Dharmasala, Tangi and Ranapur. Besides, one section has been deployed for Jharsuguda, Lakahanpur and Brajarajnagar.
Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management, Bishnupada Sethi informed that the Directorate of Minor Minerals have been made functional within a very short period of time. “Within last couple of months 1,129 new sairat sources have been identified in different districts. With this, the total number of minor mineral sairats have increased to 4,965,” said Sethi.
The process for preparation of mining plan, availing environmental clearance and timely completion of bidding process for another 1,469 sairats are in an advanced stage, Minor Minerals Director, Bibhuti Bhusan Das said at the meeting.
Among others, Development Commissioner Suresh Chnadra Mohapatra, Additional Chief Secretary Steel & Mines RK Sharma and Principal Secretary Finance Ashok Meena participated.