Geology and Mining Department needs to come clean in its policy regarding according mining rights to the eligible institutions and bodies including individuals and firms. It is beyond comprehension as to why there should appear an indifferent and evasive attitude towards granting such rights to the grass root institutions like Panchayats . Its dilly dallying approach in the process is tantamount to aborting the intentions and the purpose of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in giving rights to Panchayats for carrying out mining activities in the Union Territory. Since in the area of mining , the department has already not established its transparent credentials and dealing with the sensitive issue in a way that gives enough room for smelling a rat did not augur well for it that in fact mining mafia had established its writ in the department due to patronage enjoyed by it . This has denied the opportunities to Panchayats to expand their areas of activities and be engaged in mining pursuits that resulted in their extra income after meeting all expenses. The aggrieved Panchayats feel lot of resentment over such wilful non compliance by the department concerned resulting in denial of a novel opportunity to them.
Through the mode of short term permits granting in their favour as per the tenets of the Government order issued as back as in July last year having remained unimplemented which has resulted not only in denial of financially empowering the Panchayats but gaining a new experience though the activities were to be limited only to the area of one hectare . It is not that only, but certain motivating incentives were offered to these grass root democratic institutions to facilitate them take the assignment of mining like exemption of payment of advance royalty and necessary amendments were carried out in the J&K Mining Rules of 2016. That entire exercise should have percolated down to the levels meant but implementation being not even in infancy looks quite amazing. May be there could be queries whether these institutions had expertise enough to carry out the job or in certain cases mandatory paper work like getting clearance and NOCs from certain departments and institutions were not arranged by the Panchayats but for that, the entire responsibility vide the Government order was to be taken by the Geology and Mining Department . Is it that to get rid of this ”extra assignment”, there was some extent of indifference and lack of interest shown by the department leading to non compliance of the Government order?
Since such provisions as governing the mining rights in respect of securing clearances etc were applicable till September ending this year , it warranted that the Panchayats availed of the opportunity which cannot be possible without the active co-operation by the concerned department in putting the requisite decision of the Government into practice. What is immediately needed is identifying blocks, sites etc for the Panchayats and communicate the same to the Rural Development Department to enable them proceed further in facilitating mining activities by Panchayats. We urge the concerned department to sort out the issue on priority basis and in case they had certain genuine difficulties or needing any clarification from the Government , instead of keeping the issue under deep freezer, they should accordingly inform the concerned Government authorities. Geology and Mining Department should adopt a uniform and transparent policy in matters which it is supposed to deal in and not be soft and helping those who had nexus and other connections instead of others who are genuinely eligible for activities like stone crushing, mining etc.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel