Collector Launched the Baseline Survey/Micro Plan of the Mining Affected People in Sundargarh, Odisha

Orissadiary.com | Dec 07, 2020

Sundargarh: Sundargarh, Collector Sundargarh Sri. Nikhil Pavan Kalyan has launched the Baseline Survey and Micro Planning Project for the six mining affected blocks of Sundargarh district, Odisha. The District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Sundargarh has been supporting this participatory micro plan and the baseline survey, which will be conducted in 185 villages in 29 Gram Panchayats in 6 blocks (Hamgir, Koida, Lahunipada, Rajgangpur, Kuarmunda and Kutra). Youth for Social Development (YSD) an expert organization on participatory planning, local governance and development has been designing the technical tools and implementing the survey and micro planning along with two other NGOs i.e. Sarda and Niyatee Foundation.

This is the first ever participatory micro planning and baseline survey in any DMF district in the country. More than 40,000 households affected in the mining areas will be surveyed through a mobile application and micro plan will be prepared with the participation of the people in the 185 villages. The micro plan prepared by the people will be presented in the gram sabha and approved by the people in the mining affected gram panchayats.

This is the bottom-up planning approach to understand the people’s needs and include such considerations in the DMF plan based on the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR), 1957, as amended in 2015, and the Odisha DMF Rules, 2015 (as amended in February 2016).

This intervention will help the gram panchayats to identify issues, needs of the people, prepare a micro plan by the people, for the people and of the people and those needs to be addressed, have been highlighted and capture the perception and need of mining-affected people in a comprehensive fashion. At the same time enable the PRI members and officials to conduct the people centered gram sabha and convergence between departments, by collecting relevant information and data from the ground and approval by the people.

In this occasion the team members of DMF-Sundargarh Sri Rasai Laguri, CEO of DMF, Sri Anil Kumar Kerketta, DIPRO Sundargarh, Sri. Sameer Kumar Patel, technical manager DMF, Mrs Munmun Dasmahapatra, Programme Manager, DMF and, team of Youth for Social Development and Mr. Bibhu Prasad Sahu, Secretary, Youth for Social Development, Sri Jeebant Kumar Project Coordinator and Sudeep Chakrabarty Coordinator and representatives of other two NGO partners were present.

How Modi Government’s Thermal Power Reforms Aggravate Pollution

News Click | Nov 20, 2020

The push for the use of domestic coal is directly focused on revitalising coal mining and thermal power companies, including addressing their sluggish response to the coal auctions, said experts

New Delhi: Even as most of India is gripped by severe air pollution, reforms by the Modi government for the thermal power sector, particularly those undertaken to push the use of domestically-produced coal, could further aggravate the situation. In the latest in a series of relaxations, the BJP-led Central Government has granted thermal power plants leeway to change their sources of coal without amending environmental clearances.

The restrictions on sourcing of coal were lifted through an office memorandum issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on November 11. Instead of seeking an amendment to environmental clearance, a thermal power plant will now simply need to ‘inform’ the ministry that it would be changing over to a new coal source, irrespective of the potential environmental hazards such a change would entail.

“Details regarding change in source (location of the source, proposed quantity, distance from the power plant and mode of transportation), quality (ash, sulphur, moisture content and calorific value) shall be informed to the Ministry and its Regional Office. The quantity of coal transported from each source along with the mode of transportation shall be submitted as part of EC [Environmental Clearance] Compliance Report,” the memorandum stated.

The memorandum also allows for transportation of coal along road routes, albeit in lorries covered with tarpaulins, which, nevertheless, could also be a potential source of air pollution.

In June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the auction of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining by private players. The auction process for allotment of the blocks is still underway even as the number of blocks were later scaled down to 38, primarily due to environmental concerns raised by the Chhattisgarh government.

However, in the run up to the auction of coal blocks, the Centre brought about policy changes that laid greater impetus upon usage of domestically produced coal. Coal mined in India has a higher percentage of ash as compared to high-grade imported coal, which is of better quality and hence, expensive. Environmental hazards from fly ash are only expected to increase over the next few years as more thermal power plants shift to domestically produced coal.

Experts say the move to allow thermal power plants to change the quality and source of coal at will, needs to be understood alongside the pool of reforms for the coal sector in India, including carte blanche approvals for road transportation where precautions, prior approvals or impact assessments do not exist.

“The push for domestic coal is directly focused on revitalising the mining and coal power companies, including addressing the sluggish response to the coal auctions,” said Kanchi Kohli of the Center for Policy Research, a Delhi-based public policy think tank.

Reforms for thermal power and coal mining industries have been brought into effect notwithstanding the fact that combustion of fossil fuel is one of the major sources of environmental pollution. Fly ash, which contains highly toxic elements, is one of the byproducts from coal combustion in thermal power plants. Improper management of gargantuan quantities of fly ash accumulated over several decades has resulted in large scale air and water pollution in areas close to thermal power plants. Apart from fly ash, thermal power plants are also cause air pollution from sulphurous emissions, where coal containing high percentages of sulphur is used.

In April 2020, the Modi government had come out with a policy which encouraged thermal power firms to switch over from imported coal to domestically-produced coal. The Union Ministry of Power, which issued the policy advisory, had also set up a mechanism to ‘deal with difficulties faced by the power companies in obtaining required quantity, quality of domestic coal including logistic bottlenecks’.

In May, the central government did away with the mandatory need to use coal with ash content below 34% in thermal power plants. Domestically-produced coal has an ash content in the range between 35% to 40% or above, while most coal imported to India has an ash content between ten to fifteen per cent. The notification, issued on May 21 by the MoEF&CC, also did away with the mandatory requirement of washing coal before its usage in thermal power plants. As per experts, coal washing is a procedure that helps remove ash percentage by around eight per cent.

Though usage of domestically-produced coal is expected to generate larger quantities of fly ash, the central government has, however, ruled out any entitlement for thermal power plants to increase capacities of their existing fly ash ponds unless they expand their electricity generation capacities.

In the latest office memorandum issued on November 11 too, the Centre has clearly ruled out any provision for additional ash ponds other than that which have been allowed in the environmental clearances to respective thermal power plants.

These relaxations have been granted even as several regions in the country are battling with air and water pollution caused by thermal power plants. There have also been numerous instances of fly ash pond dyke breaches in which toxic slurry has spread over farmlands and habitations resulting in loss of lives, damage to agricultural crops and pollution of nearby water bodies.

“Substitution of imported coal with domestically produced coal is good from the point of view of increasing our forex reserves. However, there are certain plants located along the coasts of the country that have been designed to have the natural advantage of using imported coal. A few ultra-mega power projects have also been specifically designed to use a certain quality, quantity and blend of coal. The correlation between fly ash generation and its utilisation is important. The economics of fly ash utilisation should not work to anyone’s disadvantage. Transportation of fly ash not only blocks rail capacity but also involves rail freight charges. And there is obviously the threat of environmental pollution during the loading and unloading processes,” former Advisor (Coal) to government of India, R.K. Sachdev, told NewsClick.

At the same time, most thermal power plants in the country have missed the December 2017 deadline for 100% fly ash utilisation. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, as it was called during the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, had in November 2009 issued a notification regarding fly ash utilisation. The notification had set a five-year time period with staggered deadlines for thermal power plants to utilise fly ash. For existing plants, a maximum period of five years was set for 100% of fly ash from November 2009. For new plants, the ministry has set a deadline of four years for 100% utilisation within a period of four years from the date of commissioning. This notification was later amended by the Modi government in January 2016 to extend the deadline for existing plants further, till the end of 2017.

However, as per the latest report of the Central Electricity Authority, fly ash utilisation in the country was only 78.19% during the first half of financial year 2019-20. Only 39 out of 105 thermal power plants had fly ash utilisation in the range of 100% or above.

On November 6, the National Green Tribunal reiterated its earlier order upon the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to compute and recover environmental compensation from thermal power plants that have missed deadlines for the 100% utilisation of fly ash. This order was issued following a CPCB report, submitted to the tribunal in September, as per which 102 of 112 thermal power plants had refused to pay environmental compensation on various grounds (including appeals pending in the Supreme Court). Eight plants never responded to the CPCB notices while only two plants paid up the penalties.

“Ironically, this comes at a time when there is a global move away from coal-based power, including financial support. It also comes with complete knowledge that Indian coal which is high in ash content will only add to the huge backlog of fly ash mismanagement,” said Kohli.

Dharmendra Pradhan hints at short-term ban on iron ore exports to boost construction

Financial Express | Nov 20, 2020
Domestic iron ore prices across grades has doubled from Rs 4,000 per tonne to Rs 8,000 per tonne on an average, causing a spike in the cost of steel production.

The Centre is considering imposing a short-term ban on exports of iron ore, since the steel sector is facing a raw material shortage, Union minister for steel, petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

Domestic iron ore prices across grades has doubled from Rs 4,000 per tonne to Rs 8,000 per tonne on an average, causing a spike in the cost of steel production. Two tonne of ore are required for a single tonne of steel production.

Addressing the MCC Chamber’s annual general meeting here, Pradhan said, “India produces around 250 million tonne (mt) of iron ore per annum, whereas the requirement is around 180 mt. So the 70 mt will have to be exported,” Pradhan said, but acknowledged the present short supply situation. Higher prices of steel could be a dampener for the construction industry, which is looking up, after the cessation of activities due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.

“TMT bars, used for construction, are now being sold at Rs 50,000 per tonne. Hot roll coil prices have gone up from Rs 35,000 per tonne to Rs 42,000 per tonne during the past few weeks. There will be no buyers of iron and steel at such a high price and projects will get halted. Even the infrastructure projects will become unviable if prices of construction material go up at such a level,” said Lalit Beriwala, managing director, Shyam Steel.

West Bengal has 64 sponge iron and steel-making units and none of the units have more than 15 days of raw material stock. “ These units will close down in 15 to 30 days, if the government doesn’t take action to ensure iron ore supplies to the industry,” Beriwala said.

Pradhan made clear that pricing was a matter of market dynamics and the government had no intentions to regulate on the market forces, though supplies was its concern.

The ore supply problem has emanated from the auctioned merchant mines of Orissa, which during the first half of the fiscal has produced only 4.06 mt against a targeted 24.47 mt during the period. The government up to March this calendar year has auctioned 21 of the 24 mines but only seven mines have started production with the rest not yet starting to produce. The 11 mines of Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and a few other merchant mines, whose lease period are yet to expire, produce 4. 74 mt per month on an average but these mines have brought down production to 2.14 mt as of August this year, further escalating the short supplies.

The 21 operational mines, which were auctioned, after the earlier lease holders’ term expired, have the capacity to produce 90 mt per annum. But most of these mines, save that of the JSW’s and AMNS’ (earlier Essar Steel), didn’t start production. The little that JSW and AMNS produced, were carried for their own iron and steel units.

The operational mines were bid out at premiums ranging between 94 and 150% over the base price of ore as set by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Besides the winners of the bids agreed to pay a royalty of 15% on the base price, 30% of the royalty as District Mineral Fund Contribution and 2% of the royalty to the National Mineral Exploration Trust. All these put together, specially the high premiums, to be paid to the government, has made mining commercially unviable, for which most have not started production, though aggressively bade of them.

State to pump in ₹3,000 crore to kick-start Kadapa steel

The Hindu | Nov 19, 2020
JV partner will have to buy the government stake later.
With just over three years remaining for the targeted completion of establishment of an integrated steel plant in Kadapa district, the Andhra Pradesh government decided to infuse an equity capital of ₹3,000 crore in the joint venture (JV) company to kick-start the ambitious project with a rider that the JV partner should eventually buy out the entire stake.

The above condition is being imposed because the government has basically no intention to be in the business of steel-making and it can’t afford to make the huge investment that is required.

While talking to a host of banks and NBFCs through SBI Caps, which has been roped in as the transaction advisor, for raising funds towards its equity contribution, the government is negotiating with interested JV partners to bring in as much investment as possible.

“We have set March 31, 2024 as the Commercial Operations Date (CoD) but considering the difficulty for private companies to make investments at this critical juncture, it has been decided to pump in the initial equity. The process is under way. Hopefully, things will materialise by year-end,” said AP High Grade Steels Limited MD S. Shan Mohan.

Capacity
Mr. Mohan told The Hindu that the installed capacity was 1.50 million tons, for which iron ore would be sourced from the National Mineral Development Corporation, and essential infrastructure was being created.

The JV partner would most likely procure machinery from SMS Paul Wurth, Daniele or Primetals Technologies, world’s leading manufacturers of steel-making equipment such as the blast furnace and steel melting processes.

Employment
The plant would be providing direct employment to 3,000 persons and indirect employment figure could touch 12,000. The environment impact assessment report is being prepared to obtain the mandatory clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

District Mineral Fund collections bounce back from lockdown lows

Business Line | Oct 13, 2020

Rebound reflects recovery in mineral production across the country
Monthly collections in District Mineral Funds (DMF) have recovered significantly from their lockdown lows, with the gap between collections during 2020 and 2019 narrowing by September-end.

According to data shared by the Ministry of Mines, country-wide DMF collections last month stood at ₹718.46 crore, up from ₹417.29 crore in May, when the country was in the throes of the Covid-19 lockdown.

But compared to the ₹770.99 crore accrued in September 2019, the collections trailed by 6.81 per cent year-on-year.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY), mining companies have to make a contribution for the development of districts where mining activities take place, over and above their royalty payments.

These DMF collections, therefore, are directly linked to the country’s mineral output.

The amount is accumulated in funds controlled by individual District Mineral Foundations.

Arriving at the amount

For mining leases granted on or after January 12, 2015, an incremental amount equal to 10 per cent of the royalty needs to be parked by the mining companies towards DMF contributions.

For those granted before January 12, 2015, the contribution is equal to 30 per cent of the royalty.

Since the royalty is levied either on a per-tonne basis or ad valorem (linked to the sale price of minerals), across States, an increase in mineral output means higher royalties being collected. This also means more accruals in the DMF. With the lockdowns curtailing economic activity, mineral production also took a hit.

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