Indian President approves to the ordinance for the auction of mines

Author: Paul Ploumis
14 Jan 2015 Last updated at 06:16:35 GMT
NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): On 5th of January, the Union Cabinet, which is being headed by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, had accepted the ordinance. This particular ordinance would make way for an initiation to the competitive bidding for iron ore mines as well as other non coal mines. This process will also enable the creation of District Mineral Funds, which will be used for the welfare of people who affected by government based projects.

The government felt that, there is a need for considering the ordinance method, as it was becoming more difficult to allocate the mines, as the Ministry of Mines, was unable to table a Bill in the winter session of Parliament in order to amend the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act, which was dated in the year 1957.

Federation of Indian Mineral Industry, an Industry body based in the country, has been against the auction method, claiming that, it would be equivalent to the killing of the industry, and there are chances that, this might lead to cartelisation, and a waste.

The government had posted a draft of the bill on the website of the Ministry, in order to collect public comments on the Mines and Minerals Bill, 2014, but that couldn’t be presented in the Parliament in the winter session, that had ended in the previous month. The ordinance might also help to enable decentralization of power in a greater way to the states in the case allocation of resources.

For the past few years, the mining industry of the country had been facing many problems like the ban. The UPA had also brought a  Bill in the year 2011, in order to amend the act, but the bill was lapsed in the parliament, with a dissolution of the Lok Sabha at that time.

Narendra Singh Tomar, the mines minister, had stated earlier that amendments were required to restart the sector again, by removing bottlenecks, which prevented the industry from changing into a multiplier in the nation.