SHILLONG: Besides the NGT ban on coal mining, the tedious process to get various clearances to extract minor minerals, have affected the revenue of the state.
The government is concerned over the restriction in extracting minor minerals.
The government had notified the Meghalaya Minor Minerals Concession Rules (MMMCR), 2016 in compliance with the directions issued by the Supreme Court, the High Court of Meghalaya and the NGT to ensure that minor minerals are extracted in an environmentally sustainable manner.
A government document said that as per these rules, minor minerals can be extracted only from the areas having a valid mining lease or a quarry permit. Such mining lease or quarry permit, as per the rules, can be granted only after the applicant has obtained, among others, environmental clearance and forest clearance besides getting mining plan, disaster clearance, land registration certificate and labour clearance under the relevant Acts and Rules.
The process for obtaining these clearances is tedious and time consuming leading to only a small portion of the applicants successfully obtaining the mining leases, thus resulting in severe reduction in quantity of minor minerals being extracted in the state, the government said.
“This new regulatory regime has also impacted the royalty revenue realised by the state.
The same is likely to continue for the next few years and the necessity to comply with strict regulatory regime stipulated in the MMMCR will adversely affect the amount of royalty on minor minerals likely to be collected by the state”, the document said.
Further, the amount of royalty on minor minerals to be collected is also impacted by various court orders. Such orders adversely affect revenue earnings of the state from other sources.
From 2014-15, contribution of mining and quarrying has been falling drastically. The growth rate of mining and quarrying from 2011-12 and 2013-14 is about 7.23 per cent per year.
