Jaipur | May 03, 2017: Mining Surveillance System (MSS) launched in October 2016 detected 23 cases of illegal mining out of which government was able to make filed inspection only in 14.

MSS is a satellite-based monitoring system that sends trigger on any unusual mining activity that takes place within 500 meters of existing mining boundary lease. Based on these data, state governments were asked to make field visit in these areas for physical verification.

For the state 23 such triggers have been generated. Since then mines department have made verification in 14 in that department officials claim that no irregularities were found. For the remaining nine, government still has no plan to make inspection.

"At some places there was debris which were mapped as illegal mining while some places officers observed no mining activity was happening. It is a technology and possibilities of abbreviations are always there" said DS Maru, director, mining department.

However, central government is of opinion that, state governments are still not using the technology effectively. It has noted that to curb illegal mining, states will have use MSS for minor minerals using state remote-sensing application centres.

Ministry has also asked for action plan for Rajasthan on this and is likely to be discussed during two day national level meet on mining sector. Along with it on MSS the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) will conduct workshop at three places including Udaipur to apprise mines department officials on its utility.

Apart from lackluster approach in filed verification, Rajasthan is also lagging in utilizing funds for the development of mining areas under Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY).

As per figures, Rajasthan government identified about 269 schemes in PMKKKY and allocated Rs 21.5 crore. However no single money has been spent by the state so far in this regard. Under the scheme 60% of district mineral foundation duns should go into areas such as drinking water, education, health, women welfare, and environment conservation and pollution control.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)