The Supreme Court’s displeasure over the Odisha government’s failure to recover over ₹2,700 crore from mining leaseholders for extracting minerals beyond permissible limits and violating environmental norms has given the Opposition and environmentalists fresh ammunition to target the Mohan Charan Majhi government.

They accused the government of shielding mine owners at the cost of the state exchequer.

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Srikant Jena said: “Both the BJP and the previous BJD government are hand in glove with these mining operators. The Justice M.B. Shah Commission had recommended the strongest action against these looters, but successive governments have ignored its findings and even the Supreme Court’s direction. The defaulting mining operators should be asked to deposit the fine money with interest immediately, or their operations should be stopped.”

Senior CPM leader Janardan Pati said: “Earlier, the BJD government protected mine owners. Now the Majhi government is following suit. They are two steps ahead of the BJD and have quickly handed over mines to industrialists of their choice. The Majhi government is acting on the Centre’s directions.”

He added: “The government must make a public statement on how it plans to recover fines imposed on leaseholders.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rebuked the Odisha government for its slow pace in recovering dues from defaulting mining leaseholders accused of illegal extraction of iron and manganese ore in Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj districts without environment clearance.

In 2017, the court had ordered the state to recover 100 percent penalty from 102 mining leaseholders for “rapaciously” mining ore in blatant violation of forest and environmental laws. It had found that 215.5 million tonnes of ore were illegally extracted between 2000–01 and 2010–11, valued at ₹17,500 crore. In January 2025, the state informed the court that ₹2,721.65 crore in dues was still pending.

Eminent environmentalist Prafulla Samantara said: “We had hoped the Majhi government would act decisively to fill the exchequer, but it is reluctant. The fine was reduced from ₹59,000 crore to ₹17,500 crore, yet even that has not been realised. Why is the government delaying recovery?”

He added that the state had also misused District Mineral Fund (DMF) money and failed to collect ₹5,000 crore in water cess from industries.

The next hearing is scheduled in eight weeks.