Prosecute only illegal miners: Forum

CHITRADURGA: Director of Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) D V Pichamutu on Saturday urged the government to allow mining leases working legally within the set parameters of the Central government and Indian Bureau of Mining (IBM).In an exclusive chat with Express after meeting the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) team led by Indian Council of Forest Research and Education (ICFRE) director general Dr V K Bahuguna he said, “Except for a few, all are legal miners, it is not right to punish them for a mistake committed by others as it will have serious repercussions on the  society.”He also requested the government to provide an opportunity for marginally wrong miners to overcome their shortcomings and prosecute those who have blatantly misused their licenses by banning them.” Pichamuthu levied serious allegations on the state government and said, “Poor governance led to illegal mining in the state, administrators should take responsibility for their lackness.” Minimum Destruction “Large quantity of forests and habitation have been destroyed by farmers when compared with mining. According to available statistics, loss of forest by mining is a mere 15 per cent. When this is the issue where does the situation of environmental degradation arise,” he questioned.He also said, various mine owners have given prominence to increase the forest cover for which they have won several awards at various international conferences.Lack of TechnologyOn the issue of low quality fines and lumps extracted in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts, he said, “This region produces fines and lumps best suited for exports, these materials couldn’t be used in the domestic industry as we are not technologically advanced to produce iron and steel from them, export is the only means to dispose the material.”Requesting the state government to withdraw the ban on export of iron ores, he launched a direct tirade on the domestic steel industry for the present situation, who dreamt of getting material at a throw away price. With NMDC conducting e-tendering, prices are fixed for tendering process, hence the steel industry is repenting on their own brain child of ban on export as it has now backfired, he added. With the increase of export duty on iron ore to 30 per cent from the current 20 per cent, exporters are also backtracking and pushing miners into confusion.Pichamuthu said that, “My presentation to the Environmental Impact Assessmentteam is satisfactory, we have given sufficient information and obtained scientific data from satellites and we hope for a positive response from the government.”