Keonjhar: The Keonjhar District Magistrate court has issued warrants against six defaulting mines firms and ordered confiscation of their properties.
The court has also issued notices to operators of 11 mining firms to appear before it Saturday. However, only eight of them appeared and filed their replies in the day.
The court has directed the tehsildars and police officials of the respective areas to initiate warrant of sale of the properties of the defaulting mines owners.
The defaulting mines operators are SD Sharma, BPME, Basudev Agrawal, BK Mohanty, BD Patnaik and Narayani and Sons.
The court also ordered confiscation of the properties of other mining firms in the district if they fail to pay their fines within seven days.
Notably, the Supreme Court had directed the state government to recover penalties from the scam-tainted mine owners earlier. Justice MB Shah Commission had investigated the multi-crore mining scam and submitted its report to the apex court.
On the basis of the MB Shah Commission report, the court had imposed 100 per cent fine on the errant miners. In the event of violation of the SC order, the miners had been asked to pay fines along with interest.
The Collector had filed certificate cases against 24 lessees at the DM court which has been hearing the cases in a phased manner.
Notably, some mines operators have deposited their penalties while many others have not paid the fines.
PNN