Officers’ silence cost mines department Rs 80 cr loss!

Jaipur: What can be said about an alleged ‘lackadaisical’ attitue of the Mining Department which is marred in yet another ‘chaotic situation as allegations of a scam have been levelled in a case related to VS Lignite in Guda region of Bikaner. The matter pertains overburden of 83 lakh tonnes of clay for which the department didn’t get the assessment of VS Lignite done for 8 years. As a result, the royalty on company, including DMFT, NMET and TCS, and other fines amounted to Rs 8.20 crore, but the firm had cleverly declared itself ‘bankrupt.’

In such a situation, the Mines Department was able to recover only Rs 7.65 lakh. Notably, sources reveal that the Mines Dept acted reluctantly from taking action from the beginning even though the government suffered a loss of about Rs 80 crore due to Department’s negligence. The department didn’t appeal even against the decision of the National Company Law Tribunal, Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, after no decision was taken on 83 lakh tonnes of clay overburden worth crores, now the firm has sought permission from Mining Department to sell 5,000 tonnes of new stock. The company has already caused a royalty loss of Rs 80 crore to Mines Department, whereas, the department itself ignored the recommendation of the Mines Department’s Committee, which had termed the quality of overburden clay as poor and recommended to sell it for Rs 50 per ton.

According to this recommendation, the government would get Rs 41.50 crore, but now the firm has sought permission to sell the new stock without disposing of the earlier one. And thus, questions are being raised on other officers’ role including SMEs of Mines Dept. This raises yet another pertinent question: Will ACS Dr Subodh Agarwal get the investigation done in the entire matter?