Tightening the screw on several miners,the Orissa government has now decided to cancel the leases of the mines that were renewed before December 20,1999 without prior approval of the Centre. In a letter to state director of mines,state steel and mines secretary Rajesh Verma has said that prior to December 20,1999 the state government had no powers to renew the mining lease in respect of the mineral specified in the first schedule except with the prior approval of the Centre. Verma in his letter said that the sub section(2) of section 2 requiring prior approval of the Centre for renewal of mining lease granted in respect of mineral specified in the first schedule was omitted by the Amendment Act of 1999,dated December 20,1999. Any renewal made in violation of this provision of law is invalid and such leases should revert to the state government, the letter said. Verma asked the director of mines to identify the illegal mines operating after expiry of lease term and after proper verification suspend the operation of the mines if any of them are currently working. The state government also made major changes in the provision of rules pertaining to the refusal of renewal of mining lease under Minerals Concession Rules,1960 that would result in cancellation of renewal of mining leases made between February 1987 and September 1994. Under the new Rules,Orissa would revert the lease if the first renewal application made within the specified timeframe did not receive its order within one year from the date on which the lease was due to expire. In such cases,the lease cannot be renewed. In case of a second or subsequent renewal application,the same shall be deemed to have been refused if it is not disposed of within six months of its receipt. All applications for renewal filed between April 1,1991 and January 6,1993 would be treated to have been refused if the same did not receive the orders of the government within one year of the expiry of the lease and the said one year elapsed before January 7,1993. Such leases would also revert to the state government.
