West Bengal CM blasts Hoda panel report on ore mining

NEW DELHI: Even before a National Mineral Policy is announced by the Centre, dissenting voices have started surfacing over the Hoda panel report which would form the basis of the new policy.

After Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, West Bengal has come out in the open to prevent implementation of the report that it has termed going against the interest of the state and the country.

In a strongly-worded letter, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to impose a blanket ban on export of iron ore within five years to prevent the precious resources from becoming unavailable to the domestic industry.

Terming the Hoda Panel’s recommendations on iron ore exports ‘disturbing’, the chief minister questioned the logic behind removal of restrictions on the precious mineral’s export.

“Removing all quantitative and qualitative restrictions will surely result in the export of our best quality ores, deplete our finite and meagre reserves at a much faster rate and starve the domestic industry of a raw material on which its very survival depends. This is most certainly not in our national interest,” he said in his letter seeking redressal from the prime minister over the state’s concerns.