Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 16: Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today directed the Directorate of Geology and Mining to advertise the details of e-auction of minor mineral blocks in largely circulated newspapers to notify the potential bidders about the date, sites centers, blocks to be auctioned and other important related details.
He passed these directions during a meeting he chaired to review the functioning of Geology and Mining Department at the Civil Secretariat.
During the meeting, the Lt Governor took a comprehensive review of the district-wise auction of minor mineral blocks across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It was informed that notification for e-auctioning of 37 minor mineral blocks has been issued, on which, the Murmu directed the officers to notify the details of e-auction in widely circulated newspapers with separate advertisement for different districts.
Stressing on valid allotment of mining blocks, he observed that there should be precision in the rules regarding ceiling with clarity on related entity in the rules during the allotment process. He was informed that a ceiling of 500 hactares has been put in place for one party during the allotment of mining blocks.
The Lt Governor also sought a detailed report on available mineral reserves identified in J&K. He observed that J&K is enriched with minerals like limestone, gypsum, marble, bauxite and stressed on the importance to explore the same.
The meeting also had detailed deliberations on the regularization of mineral mining, High Court directions on minor mineral mining, environment and pollution clearance, ‘NGT guidelines and directions etc.
The Lt. Governor emphasized on curbing illegal mining and bringing a transparency in the system. He directed the officers to devise an effective mechanism to monitor the extraction of minerals by the allotted and establish hi-tech mineral check posts near the extraction sites for regular checks.
He passed necessary directions to protect the precious mineral like Sapphire from illegal extraction.
The Director, Geology and Mining gave a detailed briefing on minerals identified in J&K, rules governing major and minor minerals, formation of minor mineral blocks in all the districts of J&K, e-auctioning, environmental clearances, and initiatives taken against illegal mining.
Kewal Kumar Sharma, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor; BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Shaleen Kabra, Principal Secretary Home Department; Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor; Navin Choudhary, Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce ; Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring Department; Manoj K. Dwivedi , Commissioner Secretary, Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment; Sanjeev Verma, Divisional Commissioner Jammu and Achal Sethi, Secretary, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs participated in the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by Suresh Chugh, Chairman, J&K State Pollution Control Board along with other senior officers of Forest department.
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