Joda: Iron ore dumped by the roadside here is becoming useless as it is getting compressed under the wheels of heavy vehicles working on the widening of the Jurudi-Bansapani stretch of the State Highway-2 under Joda mining circle in Keonjhar district.
Surprisingly, the mines department is ignoring this gross waste of costly iron ore.
Reports said that there were allegations of mining irregularities in 2012-13 in the Joda mining circle. The mines department started probing the irregularities and detected illegally mined iron ore at the Bansapani rail siding. But nobody claimed ownership of the seized ore.
For the last five years the iron ore has been lying unprotected there. The people carrying out road works here from Jurudi to Bansapani found tonnes of iron ore strewn all over. Four-wheelers and other vehicles are running over the ore. There were also allegations that the mafia was stealing the ore.
But the mines department has completely ignored these things. At current market price a tonne of iron ore costs around Rs 4,000.
Thousands of tonnes of iron ore worth crores of rupees have been dumped at a filling station in Bansapani. The government will get nothing from this ore as it has been rusting over the years. The fact is that the government has not even thought of auctioning the ore.
The deputy director of Joda mining circle said he would look into the matter.
PNN