Iron ore exports made transparent

BHUBANESWAR: Minister for Steel and Mines Raghunath Mohanty on Wednesday said the State Government had decided to make the export of iron ore from different ports fully transparent.To a question from Hitesh Kumar Bagarti (BJP), the minister said according to the decision taken at a meeting presided over by the Chief Secretary on November 25, 2011, the port authorities would have to give details of iron ore brought to the ports by exporters, including the place of procurement and export.He said information in this regard would have to be given on 15th and 30th of every month in a proforma to the Directorate of Mines here. He said this information should match with the info given by the exporters in the e-form and mining circles.The minister said during the last three years, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, iron ore of 205.95 lakh tonnes was raised. Out of that 157.29 lakh tonnes worth Rs 3,790.63 crore were sold inside the country while 4,05,795 tonnes worth Rs 107.57 crore were exported.To a question from Amar Prasad Satpathy (NCP), the Minister said out of the 35 mines leased out to the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) only four were functional while the Kolha-Roida Iron and Manganese mines had been handed over to IDCOL on contract basis.The rest 30 mines are closed for various reasons, the Minister said. Measures have been initiated to revive them.