Odisha moots coordination between Industries and Lease Holders

Bhubaneswar, May 5 (IANS): The Odisha government on Tuesday asked the industries and mining lease holders to ensure proper coordination to resolve the issue of raw material for industries being set up in the state.

The steel and mines department on Tuesday held a meeting with mining lease holders and representatives of industries to discuss the issues of supply of raw materials to industries within the state and determination of rates for its supply.

“There needs to be proper coordination between lessee and end-user industries in the mining sector. This meeting was held to ensure that coordination,” said mines director Deepak Mohanty.

He said the government has already made a provision that the non-captive lease holders have to sell 50 percent of their production to the end-user plants in the state to avoid raw material shortage for the industries.

With allegations coming in that lease holders are charging high rates for selling of ores, Mohanty said the government has removed the bottlenecks over the issue of pricing of ores.

“The government has decided that pricing will be done on a monthly basis. The lessee’s selling price for the last month will be taken into account for fixing the price. We will no longer insist on rates published by IBM, which are three to four months older and comparatively higher,” said the mines director.

The state government has decided to facilitate iron ore to industries within the state through the state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).

The government is also taking steps for the re-opening of mines to resolve the issue. It has allowed re-opening of 29 closed mines in the state.

He said the industries and lessees were requested to ensure proper coordination between themselves to avoid problems arising out of raw material supply.

The state government had inked MoUs with 93 industries, including 49 steel industries, but the latter complained of raw material shortage to run their plants.

However, R.L. Mohanty, president of Eastern Zone Mining Association, said the industries are getting adequate raw material to feed their plants in the state.