Centre to plead to SC against blanket ban on Bellary mining

The Centre is likely to plead before the Supreme Court that there should not be a blanket ban on iron ore mining in Bellary in Karnataka and that only the violating companies should be dealt with, when it presents its interim report this week.

This view emerged at today's inter-ministerial meeting, where Secretaries in the ministries of Environment and Steel were also present, a mines ministry official said.

While imposing blanket ban on iron ore mining in Bellary last week, the Apex Court has also asked the Environment Ministry to come out with an interim report by friday on the requirement of the iron ore for the domestic steel industry.

The government will present a fact sheet to the apex court at the next hearing scheduled on Friday, where-in it would argue that a blanket ban on iron ore mining would lead to closure of several steel mills, including those in the SME sectors, in the area, the official added. 

"Cost of transporting iron ore will be too much for the smaller players Kalyani Steel, Mukund Steel and Kirloskar Ferrous," the official further said, adding, "Karnataka has 16 steel companies of different scales and minus JSW Steel, no one can survive if the ban continues for more than 15 days.

Moreover, there will be a question mark on JSW sustaining the regular production levels, if the bans continues beyond Friday, the official said, adding that the government has not yet been informed about its inventory levels. 

Besides this, several sponge and pig iron mills and allied industries in Bellary, Koppal, Chitradurga and Tumkur regions may have to shut down their businesses due to heavy reliance on Bellary's iron ore, the official further said.

The report was to be prepared in consultation with other concerned ministries like mines, steel and commerce. 

However, for the record, Steel Secretary P K Misra, who was part of today's inter-ministerial deliberations on the issue, said "we will put forward whatever facts the Supreme Court has asked for".

He added that the Apex Court is aware of the problems faced by the local steel manufacturers and could soon take a decision.

"As you see the order of the Supreme Court, it is going to consider all these issues," Misra said.

Unlike JSW, which has its main plant in the vicinity of Bellary, other top producers like SAIL, Tata Steel and Essar Steel are unlikely to get impacted with the ban, industry sources said, adding that their iron ore requirements are met from other sources.