Union Mines & Steel Minister holds discussion on proposed MMDR Amendment Bill, 2014

KOLKATA: Union Mines & Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar held several rounds of discussion on proposed MMDR Amendment Bill, 2014 with representatives of miners, end-user industries to seek inputs, feedback and suggestions on omission and commission in the proposed amendment bill. The discussions, spread over two days, December 4-5, 2014 were attended by Secretary, Mines, GOI Dr. Anup K.Pujari, Additional Secretary, Mines Mr R.Sridharan among others. The government hopes to introduce the Bill in the ongoing session of Parliament.

The minister said the objective of the Amendment Bill is to kick-start the mining sector, by removing the bottlenecks that are preventing mining industry from becoming a growth-multiplier in the country. He said that the auction route suggested in the proposed Bill has been included after active discussions and inputs from the state governments.

The organizations which took part in the multi-round discussions included FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM, FIMI, Indian Steel Association(ISA), Odisha Steel Manufacturers Association, Chhattisgarh Sponge Iron Association, Goa Foundation, Ultratech Cement, Environics Trust among others. Top steel industry honchos including C.S.Verma of SAIL, Mr. T.V.Narendran of Tata Steel , Mr. Sajjan Jindal JSW Steel, Mr. Naveen Jindal and Mr. Ravi Uppal from JSPL, who are part of ISA, joined in the discussions. Mr.R.K.Sharma from FIMI, Mr. Ajit Oswal from Ultratech Cement, Mr. Claude Alvars from Goa Foundation and Mr. Rahul Sarawagi from Chhatisgarh Sponge Iron Association also took part in the deliberations.

Besides these discussions, Ministry of Mines has also requested the general public to send their feedback by email by December 10, 2014.