Bhubaneswar, May 27: Having wrapped up their field visit during which they inspected mines in Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts, the two-member Justice M.B. Shah Commission team today held discussions with the Odisha government officials here on their findings.

Sources said that senior forest officer Biswajeet Mishra and geologist Janardan Prasad spent about an hour with steel and mines secretary Rajesh Verma at the state secretariat.

The commission, which is inquiring into cases of illegal mining in various parts of the country, including Odisha, has sent the two members to verify whether the work of fresh demarcation of lease boundaries in over 40 mines in the state was being done in tune with its guidelines.

During their tour of Keonjhar and Sundergarh, the two members visited a number of mines where five teams of state government officials are busy in physical demarcation of lease boundaries. The demarcation of boundaries was necessitated after some mine owners cast doubts on the authenticity on the differential geographical positioning system used for demarcation and preparation of maps by Orissa Space Application Centre.

The panel members also verified whether the land used by the mine lessees was in accordance with the forest diversion plan and whether appropriate procedure had been followed in granting rights to miners. During its past visits, the commission had detected several cases of violation of mining plan, excessive mining and mining outside lease areas.