SteelGuru:
Chitradurga: Monday, 09 March 2015.
DHNS reported
that mining giant Sesa Sterlite Ltd, which is one of the 8 companies that were
controversially given the Letter of Intent by the State government, is said to
have transported an extra 3.62 lakh tonnes of iron ore between 2008-09 and
2010-11.
Previously
known as Sesa Goa, with mining licence number 2236, the company is said to have
transported the excess iron ore by train as per the records of the Director of
Mines and Geology and the South Western Railway.
In 2013, a
resident of Hosadurga, who wishes to remain anonymous, obtained information
under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, that suggests Sesa Goa was
transporting more iron ore from Sasalu railway station than the DMG had
permitted it to mine. The railway station is located in Chitradurga district,
18 kms from the mining site.
The company
has been mining in the Nirthadi forest range in Chitradurga since 1996. But the
mines remained defunct until earlier this year following a Supreme Court order
in the Samaj Parivartan Samudaya (SPS) vs State of Karnataka case.
The renewal
of its licence by the government has once again turned the spotlight on the
company which has been accused of violating several forest norms and
transporting excess iron ore outside Karnataka.
As per the
DMG records, Sesa Goa had mined 50,38,500 tonnes of iron ore in the Nirthadi
forest area. But information given by the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager,
Dr Anup Dayanand Sadhu, suggests the company exported 52,25,562 metric tonnes
of iron ore.
In addition,
as per the DMG’s records, the company surrendered 60,640 tones of iron ore in
2009-10 and 1,14,050 in 2010-11. But the DGM hasn’t shown any record on how
much iron ore the company was supposed to have surrendered in 2008-2009.
In total, the
difference between the amount of iron ore extracted and transported by the
company by train alone is 3,62,548 MT of iron ore.
It may be
recalled that the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) had categorised Sesa Goa
into ‘B’ category of companies involved in mining violations.
A report by
the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Central), KS Reddy, on
May 31st 2013, states that as many as four Forest Offence (FO) cases were
registered against Sesa Sterlite.
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