Odisha to scale up annual revenue collection from minor mineral to Rs 1,000 crore

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], July 11 : The Odisha government has directed the revenue and disaster management department to identify and operationalise the new Sairat sources (sand, morrum, stones) for filling the gap between 'demand and supply' of minor minerals and sets a target to scale up the annual revenue generation to Rs 1,000 crore.
It was decided at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy on Friday.
Reviewing the progress made so far, Tripathy said, "Enhancement of legally operational sources will have triple benefit of ensuring supply of material for construction sector, which is quite labour intensive, containing the theft of minor minerals and increasing the collection of revenue".
Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management, appraised that, "As per earlier decisions of government, the Directorate of Minor Minerals have been made functional within a very short period of time. Within last couple of months 1,129 new sairat sources have been identified in different districts. With this, the total number of minor mineral sairats have increased to 4,965."
Chief Secretary has directed to identify sand rich river beds on banks of the major rivers like Mahanadi, Baitarani, Bramhani, Rusikulya and Subarnarekha in cooperation with the Department of Water Resources, Forest & Environment and prepare scientific plans for sand mining. It was also decided to allow inter-state transportation of sands through competitive bidding process.
Tripathy further directed to strengthen the enforcement activities for checking the theft of minor minerals. The collectors and police superintendents were directed to utilise the services of Odisha Industrial Security Force (OISF) and sharpen the squad activities for containment of illegal lifting of the minerals. Tripathy has directed to deal very strongly against the illegal miners and transporters.
Director Minor Minerals Bubhuti Bhusan Das appraised that "Revenue to the tune of Rs 37.11 crore has been collected during the months of April and May this fiscal from minor minerals. The process for preparation of mining plan, availing of environmental clearance and timely completion of bidding process for another 1,469 Sairats have been brought to an advanced stage".