The Supreme Court on Monday lifted the ban on iron ore mining in three districts of Karnataka.
After the order, 18 mines can resume iron ore mining in Karnataka after a suspension of more than a year on environment concerns.
The lifting of ban will be applicable in category A mines in Bellary, Chitradurg and Timkur districts of Karnataka. Category A mines are those where miners either committed no illegality or committed minor illegalities during their operations.
The forest bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Aftab Alam said the lifting of the ban would only be effective in 18 category A mines, subject to their compliance with statutory clearances. Justice Alam pronounced the order permitting the resumption of mining operations.
These 18 mines were green flagged for resumption of mining operations after they were cleared by the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee on the environmental matters in its latest report given last week.
The court said that the statutory clearances involved approval from the mining department, environmental clearance, pollution clearance from the state pollution control board and undertaking by the mining lease owners that they will comply with comprehensive plans for rehabilitation and reclamation of the depleted mines in a time-bound manner. Mining operations will commence only upon the satisfaction of the monitoring committee about the compliance of statutory clearances by the mine lease owners. On 31 August, while hearing the Karnataka mining matter, the court had given ample indication that it was inclined to permit mining operations in the 18 mines. The court in the last hearing had told steel manufacturers' counsel Prashant Bhushan, 'We fully appreciate your concerns but we can't put the state in a pre-iron stage.' It said, 'you will survive and we will not let you pass away.' The judges said that 'we want to ensure that minimum requirement of iron ore (are met) with minimum damage to environment...'
After the order, 18 mines can resume iron ore mining in Karnataka after a suspension of more than a year on environment concerns.
The lifting of ban will be applicable in category A mines in Bellary, Chitradurg and Timkur districts of Karnataka. Category A mines are those where miners either committed no illegality or committed minor illegalities during their operations.
The forest bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Aftab Alam said the lifting of the ban would only be effective in 18 category A mines, subject to their compliance with statutory clearances. Justice Alam pronounced the order permitting the resumption of mining operations.
These 18 mines were green flagged for resumption of mining operations after they were cleared by the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee on the environmental matters in its latest report given last week.
The court said that the statutory clearances involved approval from the mining department, environmental clearance, pollution clearance from the state pollution control board and undertaking by the mining lease owners that they will comply with comprehensive plans for rehabilitation and reclamation of the depleted mines in a time-bound manner. Mining operations will commence only upon the satisfaction of the monitoring committee about the compliance of statutory clearances by the mine lease owners. On 31 August, while hearing the Karnataka mining matter, the court had given ample indication that it was inclined to permit mining operations in the 18 mines. The court in the last hearing had told steel manufacturers' counsel Prashant Bhushan, 'We fully appreciate your concerns but we can't put the state in a pre-iron stage.' It said, 'you will survive and we will not let you pass away.' The judges said that 'we want to ensure that minimum requirement of iron ore (are met) with minimum damage to environment...'