A ‘Star Rating’ system has been
instituted by the Ministry of Mines through Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), in
which star rating will be awarded to the mining leases for their efforts and
initiatives taken for implementation of the Sustainable Development Framework
(SDF), vide notification no. 31/4/2016-M.III dated 23rd May, 2016. Rating of
one to five stars would be given to the mines by IBM. The best performing
leases would be given 5 Stars. Under this system, a provisional ‘Star Rating’
would be awarded on self-certification basis of the evaluation template, filed
by the mining lessee. A web-portal has been developed for online filing of the
evaluation template for Star Rating of Mines. The data for the performance in
2015-16 as per the evaluation template of Star Rating will be filed by the
mining lessees. The Star Rating data is to be filed by all the major mineral
lease. However only those mines which working for more than 180 days in the
reporting year of 2015-16 will be evaluated. The confirmation of star rating
would be given upon the due verification in the next inspection by IBM
official.
Rule 45 of Mineral Conservation and
Development Rules, (MCDR) 1988 prescribes that the owner, agent, mining
engineer or manager of every mine, or any person or company engaged in trading
or storage or end-use or export of minerals would register with Indian Bureau
of Mines (a subordinate office of the Ministry of Mines) and submit monthly/
annual returns for end-to-end accounting of minerals. The registration and submission
of monthly/ annual returns was required to be done manually. However, the said
rule has been amended vide Gazette Notification No. GSR 430 (E) dated
19.4.2016, to prescribe that the registration and submission of monthly/ annual
returns has to be done in electronic form instead of the manual reporting.
Initially, IBM felicitated 19 mines who
were given rating of 4/5 stars, during the National Conclave for Mines and
Minerals held at Raipur on 4th July, 2016. The State-wise details
are as under:
|
No
|
State
|
No of mines given 5 star rating
|
No of mines given 4 star rating
|
|
1.
|
Jharkhand
|
1
|
2
|
|
2.
|
Rajasthan
|
2
|
2
|
|
3.
|
Maharashtra
|
1
|
0
|
|
4.
|
Tamil Nadu
|
1
|
1
|
|
5.
|
Telangana
|
1
|
0
|
|
6.
|
Kanakata
|
2
|
2
|
|
7.
|
Chhattisgarh
|
0
|
2
|
|
8.
|
Odisha
|
0
|
1
|
However,
the star rating of mine is an annual exercise and every mining lease is
required to file online return on self certification basis.
This
information was given by the Minister of State (IC) in the Ministry of Mines,
Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Shri Piyush Goyal in reply to a
question in Lok Sabha today.
*****
YSK/Uma