Bhubaneswar, April 25: The Orissa government today asked the concerned district police chiefs to seize the illegally mined minerals dumped at various places across the state in order to prevent smuggling.

The direction was issued by the government at a high-level meeting to discuss how to check illegal mineral transport.

“All the mineral transportation will be regulated,” chief secretary Bijay Patnaik told the newspersons after the meeting.

Henceforth, all the trucks transporting minerals would be earmarked and these vehicles have to be registered with the mines department, said Patnaik.

Tracking device would be fitted with the mineral carrying vehicles, official sources said. Moreover, the district-level taskforces would be activated and broad-based with the induction of transport officials apart from the SP and mines department officials.

The above decisions came in the wake of multi-crore mining scam that had rocked Orissa. According to an estimate, minerals worth Rs 10,000 crore have been illegally mined and smuggled out.

As many as 840 cases of mining theft were reported during the last one year and 34,638.34 metric tonnes of minerals were seized in 2009-10. During 2010-11, the Orissa government has seized more than 1.90 lakh metric tonnes of minerals.

The Orissa government ordered closure of mines, whose lease term had expired or which had been operating illegally after the state vigilance found prima facie evidences about illegal mining operation especially in Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts.

After the closure of mines, minerals, raised illegally, had been lying dumped at various places following crackdown. In order to check illegal transportation, the SPs were asked today to seize these minerals.

Earlier on Saturday, the Orissa government had decided to set up a project management unit in the steel and mines department to track mining activities with the help of new age technology. All the 14 mining circles will be connected with the State Area Wide Network (SWAN) technology.

Orissa has a reserve of 5,074.945 million tonnes of iron ore, 170.62 million tonnes of chrome ore, 1,805.81 million tonnes of bauxite ores and 119.24 million tonnes of manganese ore.