Himachal govt issues guidelines for scientific mining

Shimla, Sept 11 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh government hasnotified the guidelines for transparent auction and scientificmining and hiked the penalty for offences under mining act. The government has decided that the mining lease would begranted through open auction, officials said. In order to curb illegal mining the state government hasnotified Himachal Pradesh Minor Minerals (Concession) andMinerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation andStorage) Rules, 2015 providing for stringent punishment forillegal mining. Imprisonment up to two years or fine up to Rs 25,000 orboth has been made for those involved in illegal mining ofminerals, their transportation and holding. The compounding of offence for illegal mining has beenlinked with quantity of illegally extracted material and inaddition to the minimum compounding fee of Rs 10,000,compounding fee of Rs 400 per metric tonne is being chargedfrom the offender. Earlier, the compounding rate was Rs 10,000, irrespectiveof the quantity of mineral extracted. The minimum fine would be Rs 25,000 when illegal miningis done mechanically in river/stream beds. Similarly, the compounding fee for illegal storage/stacking of mineral would not be less than Rs 25,000 plus themarket sale price of the total material stored illegally onthe spot. The minimum compounding fee for illegal transportationwould be Rs 4500 for tractor, Rs 7,000 for mediumtruck/tipper, Rs 10,000 for truck of 10 MT and Rs 15,000 fortruck with capacity of more than 10 MT. In compliance of orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT),the government had banned mining in the state but at the sametime the government was concerned that the pace of developmentwas not hamper for want of minerals and resorted to scientificmining. As per the rules, no lease would be provided respect ofland within a distance of two kilometres from the immediateouter limits of Municipal Corporation/ Municipal Committee,one kilometer from the immediate outer limits of NagarPanchayat. MORE PTI PCL RCJ RGRCJ