Gurgaon | Jun 15, 2015: Haryana government has decided to allow mining in selected locations of the Aravalli mountain range and river bed of Yamuna to facilitate builders and stakeholders involved in the construction sector
The decision was taken for creating more job opportunities and to provide construction material to builders. Mining of stones has re-commenced after five years. Stone mines have been lying closed since March 2010.
After obtaining requisite environmental clearances, as required under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), mining has been resumed in two mines — one of Mahendergarh district and another in Bhiwani district. While the former commenced operations on May 9, 2015, the latter followed suit on May 11, 2015.
With environmental clearances in an advanced stage, three other stone mines in these two districts may also resume operations within one month, said a government spokesperson.N/p>
He added that mining of sand, boulder and gravel may be resumed shortly as grant of environmental clearance for 12 mines in the districts of Ambala, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Faridabad and Palwal have already been recommended to the authorities and only formal approvals are awaited.
Clearances for river-bed mining in the state and in other parts of the country too are expected in a month with the MoEF set to finalize uniform sand mining policy and guidelines.
n the next one or two months, construction material will be available in the state that will help bring down its cost. It will give much-needed relief to the public and provide job opportunities to thousands of persons engaged in mining, transportation and crushing businesses, the spokesman said.
Committed to ending cartels in mining sector, the state government has decided to grant smaller mining blocks as against the big ones given in the past. Large-sized mining units in Sonipat district has been divided into 14 small-sized blocks.
It has not only helped in breaking the monopoly of big operators but also facilitated the entry of small entrepreneurs, he added.
The state government has also introduced e-auction for granting mineral concessions.
The policy of granting smaller blocks was being adopted in other parts of the state. Recently, the area allotted to three big units of Panchkula district was cancelled and it shall be auctioned as 19 blocks. Out of these, five have already attracted bids and the rest may attract bidders in the auction fixed for June 25 and 26.
On the same pattern, areas of four old units of Yamunanagar district, bids for which got cancelled on court orders, were auctioned on June 10 and 11 after being divided into 33 blocks.
The 13 mines of Yamunanagar district attracted bids totaling `116.93 crore per annum against the reserve price of Rs 72.40 crore. The left-out mines are expected to attract bidders in the auction scheduled for July.
(Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/)