Govt extends tenure of Justice Shah Commission term by one year

NEW DELHI: The government has extended the tenure of Justice M B Shah Commission, which was set up to probe into the cases of illegal mining, by one year till July 16, 2013.

"The extension has been sought since the Commission is collecting and compiling information on mining from seven important mineral producing states, which is quite voluminous, extension has been sought for one year," an official statement said today.

The commission, constituted by the government in November 2010, was supposed to submit its final report by May 18.

The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had met last evening and approved the plea of the one-man commission to extend the term as it needed more time to cover states like Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Madhya Pradesh.

"An additional expenditure of Rs 50 lakh will be incurred towards the extension of tenure of Justice M B Shah Commission of Inquiry," the statement said.

"The Commission was set up to identify cases of illegal mining and also to identify and rectify management, regulatory and monitoring system failures in curbing illegal mining," it added.

The commission, which had recommended ban on iron ore exports, has so far submitted two interim reports. Of this, one was submitted last year on the iron ore mining across the country and the other report was given in March this year on illegal mining in Goa.