Bhubaneswar: In its bid to meet the rising demand for minor minerals like sand and stone, the state government has identified 1,129 new sairat sources that will be explored soon.
This was informed at a meeting in Lok Seva Bhawan under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy.
Revenue & Disaster Management Secretary Bishnupada Sethi said within the last couple of months 1,129 new sairat sources have been identified in different districts. With this, the total number of minor mineral sairats has increased to 4,965 in the state.
As per earlier decisions of the government, the Directorate of Minor Minerals has been made functional within a very short period of time. “Enhancement of legally operational sources will have the triple benefit of ensuring the supply of material for the construction sector which is labour intensive, containing the theft of minor minerals and increasing the collection of revenues,” Tripathy said.
He sought to identify the sand-rich riverbeds on the banks of major rivers like the Mahanadi, the Baitarani, the Bramhani, the Rusikulya and the Subarnarekha in cooperation with the departments of water resources, forest & environment and prepare scientific plans for sand mining.
It was decided at the meeting to allow inter-state transportation of sands through a competitive bidding process.
The Chief Secretary further sought to strengthen enforcement activities for checking the theft of minor minerals. District Collectors and SPs were directed to utilize the services of Odisha Industrial Security Force (OISF) and sharpen the squad activities for the containment of illegal lifting of minerals.
Available data show, in the first phase, ten sections of OISF have been provided 10 locations in 8 minor mineral-rich districts. The places include Cuttack Sadar, Baranga, Jaleswar, Anandapur, Chhatrapur, Bhanjanagar, Dharmasala, Tangi and Ranapur. Besides, one section has been deployed for Jharsuguda, Lakahanpur, Brajarajnagar on a rotation basis.
Director Minor Minerals Bibhuti Bhusan Das said revenues to the tune of around Rs 37.11 crore have been collected in April and May this fiscal from minor minerals. Tripathy directed scaling up of annual revenue generation to Rs 1,000 crore from minor minerals.