The Centre today asked the Odisha government to sort out the forest diversion issues expeditiously in the mining areas. Discussing the issue with chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik at the State Secretariat here today, Union joint secretary of steel S Abbasi asked them to speed up the process for forest diversions in mining areas to pave way for state-run PSUs for carrying out mining activities. As the government-run steel companies are facing shortage of iron ore due to non-disposal of forest diversion cases, the meeting primarily focused on the removal of bottlenecks besetting the PSUs including SAIL, NMDC, OMDC and RINL. “We are concerned about the mining lease, delay in various process of mining activities. However, state government has assured to expedite the process,” said DB Singh, Union Steel director. “We discussed various bottlenecks in the industrial and mining activities. We agreed on the issues with which we can comply…disagreed with which we cannot comply,” the chief secretary said. Deepak Mohanty, director, mines, said that the meeting discussion mainly focused on the forest diversion of mines on state PSUs. “However, we assured to expedite the process very soon,” he added. While the stage-I forest clearance for the diversion of 1152 ha in 51 sq mile lease in the Bolani mines was granted with working permission for continuation of mining, which lapsed in November, the state forest department has recommended the stage-II forest clearance for diversion of 51 Sq mile lease of Bolani Ores Mines of SAIL. The closure of Bolani mine will seriously affect SAIL, which will reduce its production. SAIL has now complied with all the conditions and submitted compliance report to DFO Keonjhar so that Stage - II forest clearance may be granted. However, the state government has not agreed to give exemption of railway transit permit as SAIL has failed to despatch 4lakh tonnes of iron ore from Odisha during the last four months. Similarly, RINL has requested the state government for granting of mining leases for setting up projects in the state. As the state government is insisting on value addition within the state for allotment of any fresh mining lease, RINL has already shown its interest to set up a steel project, beneficiation and pelletization plants in the state with a total investment of Rs 2, 000 to Rs 2,500 crores on allotment of iron ore mines. NMDC is also keen to carry out exploration of iron ore where OMC is not able to start work because of various techno economical reasons. NMDC is interested to form an independent JV with OMC and explore possibility start work in those areas. Similarly, while the OMDC had applied for mines including Thakurani iron and manganese mines, Bagiaburu iron mines, Bhadarsai iron mines and Belakundi iron mines, the diversion proposal of all the mines is now pending in the court of state government since long time which affects it’s investment perspective. The meeting also discussed forest clearance and mining leases problem for the steel projects in the state.