In order to curb the illegal storage and transportation of minor minerals across the Union Territory, the Government has carried out amendments in Jammu and Kashmir Minor Mineral Concession, Storage, Transport of Minerals and Prevention of Illegal Mining Rules, 2016 and made the same more stringent.
The amendments have been carried out in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 15 read with Section 23C of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and notification in this regard has been issued by the Commissioner Secretary to the Government, Department of Mining Manoj Kumar Dwivedi.
Both the Sections of the Central Act empower the Governments to make Rules and carry out amendments for preventing illegal mining and transportation of minerals and for the connected purposes.
In the Sub-Rule 1 of Rule 71 of the Jammu and Kashmir Minor Mineral Concession, Storage, Transport of Minerals and Prevention of Illegal Mining Rules, 2016, which deals with restrictions on transportation of minerals, earlier it was mentioned that no person shall transport or cause to be transported any mineral, in whatever form, from one place to another by any carrier under these Rules without a proper challan duly authenticated by concerned District Mineral Officer.
Now, Sub-Rule 1 has been made stringent by carrying out amendments. As per the amended Sub-Rule, no person other than the mineral concessionary which includes mining lessee/licensee/permit holders and crusher unit holders will transport or cause to be transported any mineral like RBM, nullah muck, stone, boulders, nallah sand and clay etc from lease/license/permit area and processed mineral from crusher units from one place to another through/by any carrier without a proper challan duly authenticated by concerned District Mineral Officer.
The challan will have color coding with QR code—green for mining lessees and yellow for crusher unit holders. However, blue color will be used for Central/J&K Governments principal executing agencies such as National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), BEACON, GREF, BRO, IRCON and Airport Authority of India (AAI) etc.
Further, GST invoice format will be issued by the lessee/licensee/permit holder and crusher unit holders to the consignee/purchaser/buyer for the transportation of raw/processed minor minerals.
In the amended Sub-Rule 1 of Rule 71, it has further been mentioned that no mineral concession holder, as the case may be, shall transport of cause to be transported any mineral from the river/nullah bed like sand, bajri and boulder etc to any other side without obtaining a specific No-Objection Certificate in this regard from the concerned Executive Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control Department.
“The color coding with QR code will go a long way in checking illegal transportation of minor minerals as such the amendments reveal that the Government is committed to bring complete transparency in the trade”, official sources said while not ruling out the possibility of more amendments in the Rules for plugging the loopholes wherever noticed in near future.
It is pertinent to mention here that Geology and Mining Department is already in the process of installing GPS based vehicle tracking system and load sensors on the vehicles registered with the department for transportation of minerals in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in order to curb illicit trade and to check evasion of royalty.
The fitment of vehicle tracking device on mineral transporting vehicles will enable on-line and real time monitoring of their movement and effective enforcement through a web-based vehicle tracking application solution that is also proposed to be developed and deployed.
Similarly, the load censors will help the Geology and Mining Department in checking the exact quantity of mineral being carried in the vehicles and accordingly huge loss to the exchequer due to concealing of load will get checked up to a large extent.