The government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha has proposed enabling erstwhile iron ore miners whose lease expired on March 31, 2020, to evacuate and liquidate stocks of iron ore lying in leasehold areas but extracted before the expiry of their leases, a government official said on Monday, May 17.
Initially, the government had stipulated that erstwhile mining lease holders would have seven months from the date of expiry of leases to evacuate and liquidate all iron ore stocks extracted before the end of lease terms, i.e., until October 2020.
The Odisha government had put up 19 iron ore mines for fresh bidding last year when mining leases were due to expire on March 31, 2020.
However, due to the spread of the pandemic since March 2020 and the country going into lockdown, erstwhile miners said they had not been able to evacuate and liquidate stocks extracted during the tenure of their leases.