Bhubaneswar, July 3: Instances of illegal mining in Odisha’s Keonjhar district find a mention in the first part of the report submitted by the Justice MB Shah Commission to the government of India in Delhi last night.

Sources said the 1,500-page report refers to unauthorised excavation of iron ore running into crores of rupees in Uliburu, which falls in the Joda mining circle of Keonjhar. Uliburu has been in news for the past few weeks following allegations that a mine owner in the area had engaged in digging outside his lease boundary, including parts of forestland.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, on June 29, ordered a vigilance probe into the Uliburu mining scam estimated to be worth Rs 1,800 crore. Vigilance officials have since conducted a series of raids and seized some incriminating documents connected with the scandal. Raids were also targeted at a businessman whom the mine owner had given a power of attorney to manage his property.

The Justice Shah report, according to sources, is critical of the Odisha government for failing to check illegal mining, especially in forest areas and around wildlife sanctuaries where instances of unauthorised excavation had come to light during the visits of the commission’s team to the state.

Steel and mines minister Rajani Kant Singh refused to comment on the contents of the report saying it would be premature to do so. “According to procedure, the report has to be placed before Parliament. Only then will we know the exact nature of the contents and the commission’s recommendations,” he said.

The Shah Commission, mandated with the power to probe instances of illegal mining in various parts of the country, has visited Odisha four times since December 2011. While Justice Shah held a public hearing in Bhubaneswar, other members of the panel concentrated on field visits bringing a number of mines in Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts under their scanner.

With instances of illegal mining coming to the fore at many places, Justice Shah had also rapped the state bureaucracy stating that mineral loot at this scale would not have been possible without its complicity.

Embarrassed, the state government later imposed a penalty of Rs 70,000 crore on 60 mining companies for having indulged in excess mining and excavations beyond their lease areas.

While a cumulative fine of Rs 58,000 crore was imposed on 27 companies in the Joda mining circle — the largest in the state — another 33 mine owners in the Koida circle were asked to cough up Rs 12,000 crore. The penalty covered mining over a period of 10 years since 2000.

The move, however, triggered a controversy, with many mine owners disputing the accuracy of the Differential Geographical Positioning System (DGPS) used by the government for demarcating their boundaries.

Following protests and the recommendation of the commission, the state government constituted five teams for fresh physical verification of the mine lease boundaries, the cost of which was borne by the disputing mine owners.