New Delhi: Raising concerns over illegal mining and loss of related revenue for states, a parliamentary panel has asked the Centre to write to state governments to complete field verifications of such activities.
The Indian Bureau of Mines generates alerts or preliminary triggers indicating potential illegal mining of major minerals and sends these reports to state governments for confirmation through field verifications, said the standing committee on coal, mines, and steel.
The bureau issued letters to all state governments in October 2022 to complete field verifications, and followed it up with a communication to the ministry of mines in September 2023 to advise state governments on this, the panel noted.
While the bureau’s mine surveillance system generated 61 preliminary triggers for major minerals in 2022-23, state governments looked into 24 of those alerts and found unauthorized mining in seven cases, the panel said in its latest report on action taken by state governments.
In 2023-24, the surveillance system generated 138 triggers, of which 40 were checked by state governments and unauthorized mining was detected in seven cases, it added.
“The committee, while appreciating the contribution of [the Indian Bureau of Mines] in detecting illegal mining and thereby plugging the leakages to the government revenues, had suggested that [the bureau] may request state governments to carry out field verification of all the triggers generated to detect and confirm the illegal mining,” the panel said.
However, the ministry of mines did not take any action on the matter, the panel said, reiterating its recommendation that the ministry issue letters to all state governments to complete field verifications to curb illegal mining.
Illegal mining has caused significant revenue loss for states.
According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), illegal mineral excavation spread over 268.91 hectares across 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh between 2017 and 2022 caused a revenue loss of ₹408.68 crore.
The Supreme Court recently asked the Meghalaya government to file an affidavit within four weeks detailing the steps taken to prevent illegal mining in the Khasi hills.
