UV Singh

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 2: Members of the Justice M.B. Shah Commission today brought five more mines in Sundergarh and Keonjhar districts under its scanner detecting instances of excessive mining and violation of forest laws.

While this is enough to jolt the officialdom and mine owners, the day also saw the arrival here of a seven-member team of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to investigate cases of alleged irregularities in the allotment of coal blocks in the state.

Among the mines that the commission’s team inspected today were Gita Rani mines, Jitu Patnaik mines owned by an independent MLA and Sirajuddin mines. Sources said that at one of these mines, the panel found evidence of excess raising of iron ore to the tune of two lakh tonnes between 2006 and 2008 in gross violation of laws.

Sources said the team led by Karnataka principal chief conservator of forests U.V. Singh also came across instances of mining having taken place outside the lease areas. Singh said the commission would use every resource within its reach to verify the details of such violations.

“We are in no hurry. We will submit our report in a phased manner after checking all the facts,” he said.

The commission has also sought the bank balance sheets and export records of the mines inspected by it.

Earlier, the commission had ticked off the state government officials for failing to check mining irregularities, including excavation of minerals within 10km radius of the Similipal wildlife sanctuary.

Sources said it was keen on making field visits this time having received complaints of serious violation of the mining laws by the lessees many of whom were believed to have acted in collussion with the lower-level officials of the mining department.

Even though the state government has promised all co-operation to the commission, the Opposition continues to doubt its intentions and demands a CBI inquiry into the scam.

Opposition leaders also allege that the state government, which is keenly aware of the involvement of some of its own leaders in the scam, is trying to suppress facts from the commission.

Some civil society activists, too, are likely to meet the members of the commission to air their grievances. These leaders are also awaiting the verdict of Orissa High Court on a bunch of petitions demanding CBI inquiry into the scam.

While the multi-crore mining scam continues to haunt the state government, the arrival of the PAC team has turned the spotlight on the Coalgate scam which has the Naveen Patnaik government scurrying for cover. The team will examine six cases of coal blocks allotted to various companies in the state on the recommendations of the state government.

There were allegations that the state government had recommended allotment of some of these blocks in favour of companies even without signing MoUs with them. The CBI has put its lens on one of these cases and sought some documents from the state government.

The seven-member PAC team including Saifuddin Soz (Congress), Ananta Kumar and Sripad Nayak (BJP), Subhendu Sekhar (TMC), Prashant Chatterjee (CPM), Bhartuhari Mahatab (BJD) and Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena) will interact with senior officials of the state government and scrutinise documents relating to coal block allotment during its two-day stay in the state.

The state government has come under criticism for handing over majority stakes in a coal block to Delhi-based Sainik Mining and Allied Services Limited (SMASL) in 2003. The coal ministry in the same year had allocated a coal block (Utkal-D, having a reserve of 145 MT at Talcher) to the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) to help it set up a power plant.

However, the OMC transferred the majority stakes in this block to SMASL by entering into a joint venture with the company. While SMASL managed to get 74 per cent stake in the joint venture, OMC’s share became 26 per cent. The OMC cancelled the agreement with SMASL in October this year.

Similarly, the state government has also been criticised for recommending allotment of coal blocks in favour of some other private companies. After Coalgate became public, the allotment made to the Bhushan Steel was cancelled and CBI is inquiring into the allotment made to the erstwhile Nababharat Power Limited, which was another beneficiary of coal block allotment.

The state’s role has been questioned for recommending allotment of coal blocks to Jindal Steel and Power Plant (JSPL) for their coal-to-liquid (CTL) project.

However, the state government has defended its decision of making recommendations for coal block allotment on the ground that it was necessary to accelerate Odisha’s industrial growth.