Other States - Orissa   

New mining policy soon, says TSR

—Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

FOCUS ON growth: Union Minister T. Subbarami Reddy addressing a conference organised by CII in Bhubaneswar on Friday as Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and others look on.

BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Mines T. Subbarami Reddy on Friday said a new mining policy facilitating private sector participation would be tabled in the coming winter session of Parliament.

Dismissing fears of mineral-rich states such as Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh that the new mining policy would take away their authority, Mr. Reddy said the new policy would help attract investment from private sector and in the process the States’ revenue would go up.

Earlier, the Union Minister had a detailed discussion with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik about expeditious tapping of mineral wealth of Orissa.

The Government would focus on exploration and value addition of two precious metals such as gold and diamond during the next three years, he said.

Mr. Reddy emphasised the need to reduce import of gold as well as diamond, which accounted about Rs 1,40,000 crore annually. "Good deposits of gold, at about 18 locations of State are reported with less gold content of 0.5 gm/tonne of ore, which necessitated joint like MECL and HCL for commercial exploitation," the Union Minister said.

Assistance of the Geological Survey of India could be taken for further exploration, he said.

The Union Minister was here to attend the national seminar on "Mineral East; Exploration of Mineral for Indian Industrial Growth", organised by Confederation of Indian Industry here. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and others being attended the programme. The Union Minister said Orissa was one of the mineral-rich states contributing about 11 per cent of value of Indian mineral production. The Union Minister, however, ruled out the possibilities of royalty revision on ad valorem basis and said royalty would be fixed on export price of the mineral.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

New mining policy soon, says TSR
Steps afoot to check gastroenteritis
Stir hits services at Capital Hospital
SCB staff stick to their guns
Communal trouble brewing up in Kandhmal dist.
Jail term for two teachers
Southco staff continue stir
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in doldrums
Music concert to be held tomorrow

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu