Railways ready with plan to stop transport of illegal ore

Stung by the reality that illegally mined minerals,particularly iron ore,were finding their way to ports and other places through its rakes....

Stung by the reality that illegally mined minerals,particularly iron ore,were finding their way to ports and other places through its rakes,the Railway Ministry has chalked out a comprehensive action plan to stop the practice. The state-run monolith has decided to soon implement an entry-exit system at the yards along with proper lighting and installation of CCTV cameras as a foolproof mechanism to contain the menace.

In the course of a recent high-level meeting with the top brass of the Mines Ministry,the Railway Board unfurled its blueprint on implementing a mega plan to contain illegally mined ore being transported through its rakes,a top ministry official told The Indian Express. To begin with,in Orissa the Railways will put in place within two months an entry-exit system at the yards to enable systematic loading of rakes at the railway sidings. A check post will also be set up for regulating the entry of mineral laden trucks. Arrangements for proper lighting and CCTV cameras will be made by the Railways Ministry for which the necessary assistance of the Orissa government would be sought, the official said.

He said the Naveen Patnaik government would begin issuing transit permits for each rake and two copies of the transit pass would be handed over to the Railways out of which the monolith would retain one copy and return the other copy to the mining authorities for cross-verification. Each pass will contain all the relevant information,which at present is being put in the summary sheet, the official said. Most importantly,the railway authorities will submit monthly returns containing the details of the minerals transported from the railway sidings to the local mining officer of the state so as to facilitate the detection of transportation of any illegally mined minerals, according to the blueprint. The system to be introduced by the Railway Ministry will be equally applicable for public sidings as well as private ones. Once the system is stabilised and made permanent,the monolith could consider replicating the system all over the country, it said.

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The Railways and the Patnaik government were recently at loggerheads with each other the imposition of a prohibitory order on the railway sidings which brought the iron ore movement in the state to a standstill. The BJD-led government,in its drive against illegal mining activities,had enforced section 144 in and around three major iron ore railway sidings at Barbil,Bansapani,and Jhurudi in Keonjhar district on March 4. The state governments decision came in the wake of the detection of transportation of mineral illegally in railway rakes from these sidings,which had even led to the seizure of five of its rakes.

The state governments decision had forced the railways to shift 200 rakes to other states like Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand,Karnataka and it threatened to move the remaining 300 away from the state too,compelling Patnaik to write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene. Following this,Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar had convened a high-level meeting on April 12 last attended by union mines secretary Santha Sheela Nair,steel secretary Atul Chaturvedi and a top Railway Board official.

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