The Union Ministry of Mines has proposed an amendment in the law that will allow an applicant for renewal of a mining lease to move the Central Government if it does not get any response from the State Government on the subject within 60 days.

The NDA Government is trying pilot this amendment Bill in the winter session of Parliament to clear a bottleneck in terms of mining lease renewals.

Union Mines Secretary, Anup Kumar Pujari, said these here at the CII-organised Global Mining Summit.

This was to bring in a momentum in actions in the mining sector, which has suffered in the past few years in the country. Most of the active mines in different States in absence of lease renewal were continuing operations on deemed renewals.

Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Act, 1957, and Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 permitted such “deemed” renewals. However, a Supreme Court-guided recent amendment in the law ended the practice of deemed extensions.

In fact, Jharkhand, which did not regularise the renewals, stopped almost all mining operations in the State from September 5 this year. This has also led to several litigation by affected miners.

Dispute resolving mechanism

The amendment also provides a new dispute resolving mechanism through setting of a tribunal. The Ministry has also proposed unbundling of minerals for the purpose of applications for prospecting licence and mining licence. Bulk minerals such as iron ore, manganese and bauxite will require one single application both for prospecting and mining.

The Mines Secretary said that the Ministry has uploaded the 9-page draft amendment Bill on its Website for stakeholders' response. "We are open for suggestions for incorporation till December 10. After that the Ministry will have a week's time to pilot the Bill. Even if we are not able to pass the amendment Bill in the Winter Session, we are hopeful it would be done in the next session," Pujari said.

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