Mining contributes 8.04 percent revenue to State’s annual income

Ranchi: The mines and geology department forms an important part of revenue collection in the state and contributes 8.04 percent to the annual income of the state.

Addressing a press conference here Secretary of the Mines Department Abu Bakar Siddiqui said that the revenue from the mines department in the year 2014-15 was Rs 3449.83 crore which increased to Rs 5978.30 crore in 2018-19. He said that during the ongoing fiscal till July a sum of Rs 1352.91 crore has been collected as revenue.

He said that under the new mineral auction rules Jharkhand is the first state to auction the mineral blocks. He said that for the purpose of auction 60 blocks of bigger minerals including that of bauxite iron ore graphite manganese limestone and emerald have been identified and work for the geological survey was on.

He said that two gold blocks, two blocks of each limestone and graphite and iron ore have been auctioned while three blocks of the minor mineral have been auctioned apart from that three blocks of coal bed methane have been also approved for the auction. He said that in the year 2015-16 24 coal blocks were allocated to the state out of which three are operating and other two will start soon.

Mr Siddiqui said that in all the district DMFT has been formed which will be used for running the welfare schemes in the mining areas. He said that after the formation of DMFT in the mining areas a sum of Rs 4443.4 crore has
been deposited. He said that so far 16681 schemes worth Rs 4211.36 crore has been approved which will benefit 38.82 lakh people.

He said that among the schemes 15575 schemes of drinking water worth Rs 3258 crore, 17 schemes of sanitation worth Rs 458.68 crore, 237 schemes for health sector worth Rs 20.46 crore and 852 other schemes worth Rs 474.39 crore have been approved.

The Secretary said that for checking illegal mining and their transportation a task force has been formed. He said that during 2018-19 3114 cases of illegal mining and transportation was detected in which 3.22 lakh tonnes of minerals worth Rs 316.575 lakh along with 3307 vehicles were seized. He said that a total of 655 FIRs was registered and fine of Rs 349.267 lakh was collected.

Those present on the occasion also included Director Mines Faiz Ahmed Mumtaz, Joint Secretary Kumud Sahai and IPRD Director Ram Lakhan Prasad Gupta.