The Parliament on Monday passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016, which allows transfer of captive mines from one allottee to another without auction.
The Parliament on Monday passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016, which allows transfer of captive mines from one allottee to another without auction.
Replying to a debate on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, which later passed the bill, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the legislation is in the larger interest of workers and that the provision was not intended to benefit any industrial house. Lok Sabha had already passed the bill on March 16.
The legislation allows mergers and acquisitions worth billions of dollars in the domestic market as the provision of non-transfer of concessions granted otherwise through auction was coming in the way of banks and financial institutions to liquidate stressed assets where a company or its captive mining lease is mortgaged.
Mr Tomar said the Centre is committed for transparency in mines allotment and transfer provision was in the larger interest of workers and was not “intended to benefit industrial houses”.
“I assure you that the transfer of captive mine will be only for captive purposes and not for any industrial purposes,” he said and added that this will benefit workers and will save factories from closure where the original allottee of a mine was not in a position to run it.
“Labourers will be rendered unemployed in case any industry is sick and not transferred. Economy will be hit,” the minister said replying to a debate on the bill. He said mining sector was facing severe challenges when the NDA government took over in May 2014 and activities in the sector were virtually “halted” and the Supreme Court and Justice Shah Commission were looking into it.
The MMDR Act was passed in 2015 and that resulted in transparency in the allocation, with neither the Centre nor the states having any special privileges for the allotment of mines, he said.
Mr Tomar said auction notices for 43 mines were out, of which auctioning for six was already done in three states and revenue of Rs 18,946 crore was generated.
He said the government was committed for the welfare of those affected by mines and there is provision of district mineral foundation where so far Rs 6,000 crore has been deposited in the mines-rich states.
