Centre’s nod for mining in 170,000 hectares of forest in Chhattisgarh

Hindustan Times || Jayashree Nandi, New Delhi || March 21, 2019

Hasdeo Arand is one of the largest contiguous stretches of very dense forest in central India, spanning about 170,000 hectares.

The Union environment ministry has given environmental clearance for open cast coal mining in Parsa in Chhattisgarh’s dense Hasdeo Arand forests, in a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for forest cover conservation in India.

Hasdeo Arand is one of the largest contiguous stretches of very dense forest in central India, spanning about 170,000 hectares. Parsa is one of the 30 coal blocks in Hasdeo Arand and is owned by the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RVUNL). Read more

Exclusive: The End.

The Lede | FEBRUARY 21, 2019 | Sandhya Ravishankar

The government of India amends rules, in effect, putting an end to private companies mining beach sand minerals

Private beach sand miners can no longer mine the coasts of India, as per a Gazette notification by the Union Ministry of Mines which has just been made public.

In the notification dated 20 February 2019, the Centre has amended sections and rules which earlier allowed private companies to mine rare earth minerals found in the sands of India’s coasts.

“All cases of Beach Sand Minerals and other placer deposits in association with monazite are notified as above threshold (i.e. the threshold is 0.00% monazite in Total Heavy Minerals), irrespective of monazite grade,” said the notification. Read more

‘Over-valuation’ of coal imports: DRI moves Supreme Court against Adani Group firms

The Indian Express|| Written by Khushboo Narayan | February 21, 2019

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has moved the Supreme Court against a September 2018 order of the Bombay High Court that granted an interim stay on the use of Letter Rogatory (LR) by the agency to obtain information from foreign jurisdictions for its probe into the alleged over-valuation of Indonesian coal imports by a few firms of the Adani Group.

An LR is a formal request seeking judicial assistance from a foreign country in investigating an offshore entity.

The DRI has filed a special leave petition in the apex court against Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) and Adani Power Ltd and challenged the Bombay High Court order. The agency in its petition in the apex court argued that the high court order will defeat its investigations in all cases pertaining to violations of customs norms. Sources said since the Indian Customs deals with overseas transactions in case of both imports and exports, it will not be able to probe violations if the agency is not allowed to use LR to obtain information from foreign jurisdictions. Read more

Ministry of Coal Signs an MoU With Ministry of Energy, Republic of Poland

KhabarIndia|| BY ARUNA SHARMA ||FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Ministry of Coal entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Energy, Republic of Poland here today. The MoU has been signed between Sh. Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, Hon’ble Minister of State for Coal and Mines and Mr. Grzegorz Tobiszowski, Secretary of State, Ministry of Energy, Republic of Poland. Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Shri Suresh Kumar, and Ambassador of Poland HE Mr. Adam Burakowski were present on the occasion,

The objective of this MoU is to foster relations in the field of coal mining and clean coal technologies through the already established Joint Coal Working Group as well as research institutes and academia between the two countries covering the following areas. Read more

Now women can work in underground mines, says government

The Indian Express|| Published: February 4, 2019 5:59:59 pm

Women have been allowed to work in underground mines, and would be deployed in open cast mines during night hours also, as part of the government’s efforts to create more employment opportunities for them.

The labour ministry has issued new rules permitting women to work in opencast mines during 7 pm to 6 am.

Earlier, employment of women in underground, opencast mines were restricted under Mines Act, 1952. Read more

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