Our members have pointed out that in order to commence the survey from 16th May 2011, Director, Department of Mines and Geology, Govt. of Karnataka has issued orders to all concerned lease holders on 13th May 2011 to stop all kinds of mining activities and transportation of ore with immediate effect and asked them to surrender all the mineral dispatch permits and relevant trip sheets.
We would like to submit that the above order of the Director is contrary to the Supreme Court order. In its order on 6th May 2011, the Supreme Court had not given any direction to completely stop all the mining activity in the district. In fact, it had asked to assess the encroachment in a scientific manner without affecting the current operations. However, the sudden action of the Department in issuing closure notices to all the mines in the district have severely affected the functioning of the Steel Industry.
All the major industries including JSW Steel, Kirloskar Ferrous Ltd., Kalyani Steels, Visveswaraya Iron & Steel Ltd., etc., have set up their plants in this Sector with huge capital investments only on the account of proximity and availability of the iron ore. Karnataka is also the major supplier of iron ore to the neighbouring States such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu especially to the Medium and Small Size sponge iron units. Out of the total annual production of around 60 million tonnes of steel in India, Karnataka State alone contributes to more than 25% of the steel production. While the Chamber strongly condemn any illegal mining activity, we would like to urge the concerned to take a holistic view on the other mining lease holders who strictly follow and adhere to all the rules and regulations stipulated by the Government. The action of closing all the mines at a time for survey work had seriously crippled the supply of iron ore from the mines of Bellary district to the Steel, Pellets and Sponge Iron plants, as Bellary district holds around 80% of the iron ore deposits in the State of Karnataka.
At the recently concluded Global Investors Meet 2010, Government of Karnataka has approved number of new Steel Plants in the State especially in the Bellary-Hospet region. Hence, if the ban gets implemented this will not only cause immense damage to the industrial development but also create a major dent in the State’s exchequer.
In view of the above context, the Chamber would appeal to the State Government to appreciate the genuine concerns of the steel industries and take a holistic view on the above subject considering the huge investment and employment of lakhs of workers being deployed in the above industries. The social fabric of the region is likely to be severely disturbed. While we appreciate the action of Department of Mines & Geology in carrying out the survey and demarcation work, the same should have been carried out in a phased manner without stopping the mining operation in such a way that the raw material supply should not have been disrupted as iron ore consuming industries are entirely dependent on iron ore from the region and do not have a single captive mine of their own. We take this opportunity to request the Print and Electronic Media to highlight the serious problems faced by the Steel Industry in the State which has been driven to close down its operations by the unilateral decision of the State Government by closing the mining operations in the Bellary-Hospet region
