The State Government of Odhisa on Sunday informed the Rajya Sabha Committee on Subordinate Legislation that efforts are on to auction 12 mines by the end of December 2015.
The committee headed by T Subbarami Reddy reviewed the activities in the mining and industry sectors and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, waste management and the functioning of public distribution system (PDS) in the State at a high-level meeting here.
“We informed the committee about the steps taken by the State Government for auction of 12 mining blocks in the first phase. Notification for the proposed auction will be issued by the end of December,” Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty told reporters after the meeting.
The State Government has identified 12 mineral blocks for auction of which six are iron ore, one bauxite, two manganese ore, one dolomite and two limestone deposits.
“We wanted to know from the State Government about the delay in auctioning mining blocks and the raw material availability to the industries in the State,” Reddy told reporters.
Though the Centre in January asked the States to start selling iron ore, bauxite, zinc, copper and other mineral mines through auction, the State Government is still in the process of finalising the bidding system.
While Central PSU MSTC Ltd will provide the auction platform, SBI Capital Markets Ltd, a fully-owned subsidiary of State Bank of India, is the transaction advisor for conducting mineral auctions. The transaction advisor will assist the State Government in fixing floor price for auctions.
The parliamentary panel also informed that the State Government has already formed a committee under Development Commissioner UN Behera to monitor the preparatory work relating to auction of major mineral concessions including conduct of DGPS survey and preparation of tender documents.
While seeking suggestions from the State Government regarding amendments to the E-Waste Management Act, 2013, the Rajya Sabha panel sought to know the measures taken by the State to deal with e-waste management.
The committee mainly focused on four issues - effective e-waste management, solid waste management, environmental pollution and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ).
The committee also enquired about the functioning of the PDS and the implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA).