Govt to slap notices on mining firms

​Hyderabad: Minister for IT, Industries and Commerce K T Rama Rao said that mining licenses of the companies which have not yet commenced operations would be cancelled.

At a review meeting held here on Thursday, Rama Rao directed the senior officials of the Mining Department to issue notices to the companies who had obtained licenses but failed to commence operations as per the lease agreements. KTR said, `` If these companies had commenced operations by now, it would have generated revenue and created new jobs in the State.”

Since the lease holders failed to comply with the conditions and continue to cause loss to the government, the Minister directed the officials to serve notices for cancellation of leases and to take possession of the mines.

He also directed them to complete the process of issue of notices and to take possession within a week’s time.
He directed the officials to act tough against the defaulting lease holders and against those carrying out mining without following proper norms.

Appreciating the functioning of the Mining Department, he stressed upon the need to make use of latest technologies to improve standards in the department.

He suggested to take support from the IT Department for digitalisation of inspections, real time monitoring and to send inspection reports directly from the field.

For this, he asked the official to provide tabs to the inspecting authorities. Further, he asked officials to geo-tag every mine and adopt geo-fencing within three months so as to ensure that mining activities are not carried out beyond the limits of the mines leased to the companies.

Later, the Minister launched a web portal of the State mines Department. He said that the portal has detailed information about the mines in the State and it also provides online payment facility.