Bhubaneswar, May 19: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today demanded a relook at the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Bill, 2011, since some of its provisions go against the federal spirit of the Constitution.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Naveen said that given its provisions, which encroached upon the powers of the states, the bill, when it becomes an act, would be a departure from the Constitution’s federal spirit. He said the offending sections in the bill should either be modified or omitted altogether.

Naveen’s diatribe comes in the wake of his earlier skirmishes with the Centre over issues such as the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and amendment to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) Act, 1957.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Naveen argued that regulation of mines and mineral development was basically a state subject with the Centre having limited legislative powers in this regard and should not ever assume a supervisory role over the states. “The proposed bill, on the other hand, makes an attempt to transfer certain powers and functions now being exercised by the states to the central government or its instrumentalities,” the chief minister said.

Naveen said that under Section 58 (1) of the bill, the Centre would set up a National Mining Regulatory Authority on major minerals except coal with its officers having powers to call for records or material evidence or even offenders before it. While Section 69 of the bill authorises the authority to entertain complaints and institute prosecutions throughout the country, Section 121 makes non-compliance of its directions by any person an offence.

“Whereas establishment of the National Regulatory Authority to perform advisory and recommendatory functions is welcome, creating a superior body with investigative and judicial functions to entertain complaints, give directions to the state governments, initiate investigation and lodge prosecutions encroaches upon the domain of the state government and is not in keeping with the federal structure envisaged in the Constitution. Therefore, all issues need to be relooked and the relevant sections in the proposed bill should be accordingly modified or altogether omitted,” he stated.