The All Odisha Steel Federation (AOSF) again urged the state government to make available raw material (iron ore) for the local steel and sponge iron makers at fair prices.
In a letter to the steel & mines department, AOSF said the policy resolutions taken by the state government to ensure raw material security for the local plants were only on paper.
On September 18, 2012, the state government passed an order to reserve all balance mineral bearing areas in favour of its own mine PSU-Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) in order to guarantee long-term raw material security for the local end-use industries.
Later, through another notification dated December 5 2012, the state government made it mandatory for mine lessees without end-use plants, to sell at least 50 per cent of their extracted iron ore to state based consuming industries.
But AOSF argues that all the decisions of the state government seems to have been scuttled at the behest of mining lessees.
The government’s plan for e-auction of major bulk minerals has been deferred. Though the inter-ministerial committee was supposed to frame ore linkage policy by January 30, it has failed to do so, the federation said.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.