Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015, seeking to introduce the system of auction of mines to enhance transparency in mineral allocations was passed in Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The Bill was already passed by the Lok Sabha and seeks to replace an ordinance.
Rajya Sabha also rejected the motion to send the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 again to Select Committee.
The Bill envisages spending of a fixed percentage of revenue generated from mining on the development of the local area.
As per its provisions, there will be no renewal of any mining concession, unlike the original act of 1957. Also, the licence will be for 50 years, as against 30 now, after which there will be no renewal but compulsory auction.
The government has already identified 199 mines for auction.
Earlier on Thursday, Opposition forced deferment of consideration of the contentious Mines and Minerals Bill in Rajya Sabha till today, arguing that mineral-bearing states had not been consulted.
Congress members even stormed the Well of the House amid demands that the Mines and Minerals Bill be again sent to the Select Committee which already scrutinised the proposed legislation and presented its report to the House only on Wednesday.
Rajya Sabha Select Committees on Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill and Coal Mines Bill on Wednesday recommended their approval without any change.
The 19-member panel on the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015 that provides for allocating coal mines through auction, referred the Bill to the House for passage without any change. The report also contained five dissenting notes from Digvijaya Singh (Cong), P Bhattacharya and Rajeev Shukla (all Cong), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and K N Balagopal (CPI-M).
The one on the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015, too recommended no change in any of the clauses. However, it wanted the government to consider at a later stage issues like impact of mining activities on environment, rampant illegal mining, lack of proper and scientific mine closure, land acquisition and resettlement and capturing windfall profits for the welfare of local and tribal communities.
"The Committee, in view of limited ambit of amending Bill under its consideration, is of the opinion that these issues are of utmost significance that warrant serious consideration by the government. The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Ministry should consider these issues to be incorporated subsequently in the MMDR Act, 1957 at an appropriate stage as well as in the relevant rules/regulations required to be framed there under," it said.
With Agency Inputs
