Striking a Balance | Combat illegal mining, facilitate mineral access: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo

Jammu, Dec 19: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo Tuesday impressed upon the Department of Mining and divisional administration to act tough against the menace of illegal mining in Jammu and Kashmir while taking steps to provide the necessary building materials to people smoothly by increasing the number of permits given to extract such minor minerals here.

An official spokesman in a statement issued here said the chief secretary during the meeting said that to put a complete stop to the illegal mining here, the administration had to work on the two-pronged strategy.

He asked for devising effective deterrents to curb it besides increasing permits to include all areas so that people and public projects do not face any dearth of such construction material in J&K.

“Our vast geographical diversity promises of bearing reserves of different minerals across the length and breadth of J&K,” Dulloo said.

He impressed upon the department to expedite the process of exploration of such major minerals to augment the resources of J&K.

The chief secretary also took note of the revenue models to be adopted for auctioning of some of the valuable mineral blocks of lithium, bauxite, and others.

He also asked for streamlining the auctioning of the mineral blocks besides making every effort to operationalise all the auctioned blocks here.

Dulloo asked for conducting meetings every month by the concerned Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to decide about the cases received through a single window system.

He advised the department to acquire the services of the transaction advisor wherever required for taking the process of auctioning to a logical conclusion.

The chief secretary said that the constitution of J&K Environment Impact Assessment Authority (JKEIAA) was in its final stage to make the availability of minerals smoother in the market.

The Divisional Commissioners, Secretary Mining, and Director Mining of both Kashmir and Jammu regions attended the meeting.

Earlier, in her presentation, Secretary Mining Rashmi Singh informed the meeting about the availability of different kinds of minor and major minerals across the districts of J&K.

She said that dozens of blocks of limestone, gypsum, coal, magnetite, lignite, granite, sapphire, and others had been identified for exploration.

Singh said that 208 Minor Mineral Leases (RBM) had been granted by the department through e-auctioning.

The meeting was informed that the department had realised Rs 10,185 lakh during the current financial year and had also issued 3643 short-term or disposal permits for extracting RBM and ordinary earth to facilitate the execution of projects of national importance and government works in J&K from January 2020 to November 2023.

It was further apprised that the department had taken several reforms like a first come first serve basis to e-auctioning, constitution of a single window clearance system, steps to ensure ease of doing business, introduction of e-challan, and e-market web portal.

The meeting was informed that the department had also taken a plethora of measures to curb illegal mining including the introduction of the mining surveillance system, mineral check posts, and vehicle tracking system.