Orissa mining scam costs 3 lakh crore Rupees

The Congress on Monday released a book on the multi-crore mining scam in Orissa. Titled Satabdira Mahadurniti (The greatest scam of
the century), the 40-page makes a graphic presentation of several irregularities that have reportedly taken place during the present state government headed by Naveen Patnaik.

The book says the Naveen Patnaik government has “plundered” mineral wealth of Orissa to the tune of Rs three lakh crore and seeks a CBI probe into the scam.

Releasing the report of the fact finding team constituted by the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee to probe the alleged scandal, the OPCC general secretary Naba Kishore Das claimed the scam might cross Rs three lakh crore mark, if taken into account all the irregularities in mining and trading of the minerals. He said this fact has been admitted by various departments of the Orissa government in last ten years.


The book has accommodated as many as 40 photographs showing illegal lifting of iron ore, unauthorised transport of minerals, mining in forest lands and presence of heavy equipments owned by mafia in different mines.

“The vigilance department of the Orissa government, which is currently inquiring into it, is not in a position to unearth the scam because of its volume and involvement of highly placed people in the state government including ministers, bureaucrats and mines officials. Only a national investigating agency like CBI would be able to expose it,” Mr Das, who headed the fact finding team of his party,” the book says.

The team, which made an extensive tour of the mineral belts of the state, has said that the mine owners have been using fake transit passes on a large scale and transporting minerals worth thousands of crore rupees from Orissa.

“The state government has permitted traders to print their own transit passes, resulting into a loss of huge revenue to the government following unethical use of such passes,” he said.

The Orissa government has also failed to check violation of Mines and Minerals Development Regulation Act by some mine owners who extracted minerals beyond permitted quantities and even after the expiry of lease period, the report said.

“Out of total 621 mines in Orissa, the lease for around 200 mines is over. But these mines are still in operation despite expiry of their lease periods,” the report mentioned, adding the ruling BJD had leased out five thousand hectares of mines in the last eight years.