Odisha plans to restore coastal green cover
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Illegal mining probe agency Justice M B Shah Commission of enquiry has sought the state government’s view on imposing a ban on export of minerals, especially iron ore. The probe panel, which recently
Each of these UMPPs would have capacity of 4000 MW & are being taken up at a total investment of Rs 60,000 cr After zeroing in on sites for establishment of two more Ultra Mega Power Plants (UMPPs) in the state, the Odisha government is keen to have a detailed assessment of private land needed and people to be displaced by these projects.
The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a public interest litigation (PIL) on contentious joint venture pact between the state-owned resource company Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Delhi-based Sainik Mining & Allied Services Ltd (SMASL) for raising of coal from a block allotted to the former. In the PIL the petitioner has demanded cancellation of the coal block and CBI probe into the joint venture agreement, where OMC has conceded controlling 74 per cent stake to SMASL. The formation of the JV, named Kalinga Coal Mining (Private) Ltd, is in blatant violation of Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act-1973, the petitioner argued.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the Orissa government on a plea alleging that majority stake in a coal block, allocated to the state mining corporation, was illegally given to a private company. The public interest litigation (PIL) has alleged that Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) was divested of the coal block, in Talcher coalfield of Angul district, and the same was handed over to Delhi-based private mining firm Sainik Mining and Allied Services Ltd.
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which aims to run its Talcher power station at higher plant load factor (PLF), has requested the state government to direct Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal India (CIL) to step up coal supply over and above the assured quantity. The Talcher unit of the power producer is currently running at 91.45 per cent PLF against the target of 95 per cent. To maintain the target for the full year, the plant needs to run at 104 per cent PLF in the balance period and hence the need for more coal.
Jharsuguda facility may shut down in a month A day after shutting down its bauxite refining unit at Lanjigarh temporarily citing unavailability of bauxite ore, Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), has said it can hardly run its smelter facility at Jharsuguda for a month in the absence of enough alumina to run the plant. “Amid raw material supply problems, we can run the smelter plant hardly by a month or so,” said an official of VAL smelter plant.
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), which had announced to close down its alumina refinery in Odisha from December 5 for want of bauxite, may go for a temporary shutdown of the facility in a day or two, much before the due date. With no immediate supply of bauxite in sight, the company said, it will be compelled to shut the refinery for 10-15 days, latest by Friday. “Going by our current stock of bauxite, we will not be in a position to run the refinery after a day or two. Then, we have to take a painful decision to shut our refinery plant for 10-15 days.
Illegal mining enquiry agency M B Shah Commission would take more time to submit the preliminary report on Odisha because of complexities involved in investigation of mining lease records. The commission, which has already stated that it might come for third time to complete verifications all the lease deeds of iron and manganese mines of the state, said that an interim report is not possible without complete investigation.
The state government has formed a 12-member committee to expedite the process of mining lease renewal, the applications for some of which have been pending for over 10 years. The decision to form the committee follows a recent resolution of the state government, which decided that henceforth, mines meant only for mineral development would be applicable for renewal of lease.
Nine private miners are likely to lose their mining leases in the state following a recent decision of the steel & mines department to cancel all applications for renewal of leases made between 1987 and 1994. The department on Saturday had decided to bring such leases back to the fold of the state government against the backdrop of an ongoing probe into alleged large scale illegal mining activities in the state by the visiting M B Shah commission of enquiry.