Ranchi | Dec 07, 2017: Jharkhand High Court directed the state government to furnish district-wise details of minor mineral stocks, especially information on the mineral content and the ratio of its exploitation.

The court of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice B.B. Mangalmurti was on Wednesday hearing a public interest litigation on illegal mining of stones and minerals initiated suo motu on the basis of a news report.

Advocate general Ajit Kumar informed the court that the government had already prepared a draft policy for minor minerals which had been posted on the official website of the mines department. He also informed the court that experts were being appointed in each district for assessment of mineral content.

The court also ordered the mines department to ensure that it took into account the logistics involved in accumulating data with regard to availability of minerals in various districts. Specialised equipments may be required along with expertise for scientific exploration of the mineral content in districts, the bench observed.

The court also said that remote sensing ought to be done in the districts to know the extent of mining that can be done.

The case will be heard again on December 18.

The news report report, on which the PIL was based, was published on April 24, 2015. It claimed that the stone quarrying business in the state had an annual turnover of Rs 20,000 crore while the revenue earned by the state was a meagre Rs 81 crore.

There were about 20,000 illegal quarries and mines in the state that were digging out stones everyday, the report said.

(Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/)