ONGOLE: Mining Department officials have felt the need to expedite granting of lease licence to check illicit mining going on in the district and to increase revenue to the Government through royalty.

Addressing the second district-level Task Force committee meeting held here on Tuesday, the officials said that as many as 224 applications for leasing of mines for granite and slate stone were pending with them for want of no-objection certificate from Mandal Revenue Officer or Forest Officer concerned.

As the mines were scattered, they were not able to conduct frequent checks and prevent illegal mining. So, they requested the MROs and forest officials to issue no-objection certificates early to enable them to grant lease licence, regularise mining activity and improve revenue.

They pointed out that an application was pending for mining of barites on 10 hectares of forest land for want of NOC from the Divisional Forest Officer. But forest officials said that they could not locate the site where the applicant wanted to mine.

They wanted the applicant to come and show the area so that they could issue the NOC. Similarly, MROs were not issuing NOCs even for lands that were not used for grazing.

Mining officials said that NOC was needed for site clearance from MROs without which they could not give lease licence. Many of the applicants were resorting to illicit mining and depriving the government of its revenue.

Threat to officials

The vigilance wing had recommended recovery of Rs. 48 lakhs from the Mining Department towards loss of revenue due to illegal mining.

Officials said that illicit mining of slate stone was going on in 12 villages of Markapur and Tharlupadu mandals. Similarly, quartz mining was thriving in four villages of Pamur mandal. They also could not check illicit mining of granite and ceramic material at Yelchuru village where rival factions were using country made bombs to scare away officials.

They said that the illegal mining could not be checked in several villages where extremists had a sway.

The meeting decided that task force committees, consisting of mining, revenue, transport and police departments, should conduct joint raids at least two days in a month to check illicit mining and transport.

They identified Rayavaram, Konakanamitla, Bestaveripet, Chinarikatla junction and Kunta as vulnerable points for checking mineral traffic.

Officials checked 118 vehicles during August and found 14 without bills and collected compounding fee of Rs. four lakh from them.

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