States have not installed a system of proper recording of illegal mining or have any record of the same with mining surveillance system hardly present across major mineral bearing States, the CAG said in a report released on Thursday. In fact, the CAG has referred to poor surveillance and monitoring systems of West Bengal which makes it “susceptible to illegal mining, pilferage of minerals and windfall gains of lessees” at the cost of the exchequer.
The study, Compendium of State Asset Accounts on Mineral and Energy Resources, released by the Union Mines Minister, Pralhad Joshi, also pointed out to the discrepancies in coal production shared by the State governments (including West Bengal) and the Indian Bureau of Mines. Discrepancies arose because of “non-submission of regular returns by the lessees”. As a result, State governments are sourcing data from the lessees and there was no State-wise data base available.
Illegal Mining
Referring to West Bengal, the study said, there is no system of issuance of permits or transit passes for coal — on advance payment of royalty — which “is a pre-requisite” as per the MMDR Act. However, such a system does exist in the State for non-minor minerals.
Accordingly, the CAG report observes that ”there is no control and monitoring of the mining officers” on production and dispatch of coal from the mine head. The lessees have their own system of issuing permits or passes; and weigh-bridges for measurement. Mining department officers are not present for supervision either. The State mining department also does not have any weigh bridge or check gates to determine the actual dispatched amount of coal. In the absence of any such system, the assessment of revenue is done solely on the basis of returns furnished by lessees.
The study found that district authorities “did not assess the demand for coal lessees” who have not submitted returns; and there has been non realisation of rent, cess, and some other mandatory realisations. All this has led the system being susceptible to illegal mining and pilferage; which in turn caused windfall gains to the lessees and “connected parties”.
Irregularities in data
Across some other States, like Karnataka, there exists “huge variations between actual extractions vis-a-vis those uploaded in the ILMS (Intergrated Legal Monitoring System) database; while in Andhra Pradesh there was mis-classification of revenues realised on fuel minerals and variations in iron-ore production numbers shared by the State government and the Centre. In Chhattisgarh, the online system of issuing permits and making payments are facing connectivity issues.