Bhubaneswar It is like carrying coal to Newcastle. Orissa, which already has a huge reserve of iron ore and bauxite, is, of late, importing the two raw materials. Realising this, the state government has now decided to put in place a mechanism to ensure raw material supply from the state mines to the mineral-based industries in the state. The state government has constituted a three-member ministerial panel under the chairmanship of finance minister Prasanna Acharya to formulate a policy to ensure smooth supply of minerals such as iron ore, bauxite, manganese and chrome ore to industries based in the state on a long-term basis. The other members of the committee include industries minister Niranjan Pujhari and steel & mines minister Ranjani Kant Singh. Acharya told FE that the committee will suggest modalities of raw material linkages to the state-based industries. It will also explore the possibilities of entering into long -term raw material linkage contracts with the industries through the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and other mining leases of the state. According to him, the committee will submit its report by end of January. The decision of Vedanta Aluminium (VAL), a company of London-based Vedanta Resources, to close down its 1-million tonne alumina plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district for want of bauxite from December 5 came as a rude shock for the state government. Orissa boasts of having over 50% of the total 2500 million tonnes of bauxite reserve of the country. It is an irony that VAL is now importing bauxite from Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to keep its plant operational. The Niyamgiri mines, bauxite from which was supposed to be supplied to the VAL’s plant, is yet to be operational because of the restriction by union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF). There are about 20 bauxite mines in the state. But none of them, except the Nalco’s captive bauxite mines at Panchpatmali in Koraput district, is operational. Similarly, the medium and small steel plants and the over 100 sponge iron plants in the state are facing iron ore supply problem as the OMC and the private mine owners are demanding high prices for the ore. Some of the units import iron ore from Karnataka as it is cheaper than the domestic one.