SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, May 9: Technology is a double-edged sword. It can be useful and dangerous too.
So, when the Jharkhand Government installed the Jharkhand Integrated Mines and Minerals Management System (JIMMS) software in 2016, it was thought it would speed up administrative affairs of mining, bring in transparency, set up e-permit and e-transport, keep vigil by connecting all District Mining Offices, the Deputy Directorate Office and the Head Quarters.
It made the mining department a paperless office as a dealer/ lessee would undertake everything like paying the royalty, district mineral fund etc online.
It was also given legal status after the State Government framed rules in 2017 known as the Jharkhand Minerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules.
But the Jharkhand mining department used this software as a tool to know how much illegal funds the district mining officials generated every month and thus have a lion’s share at the headquarters level, which ran into crores, according to one estimate over Rs 100 crore, every month.
Under the rules, the district mining officer happens to be a competent authority to clear the automatic generation of transport challan with a bar code after the dealers upload all the required papers on the JIMMS site. If the district mining officer was satisfied with the genuineness of the papers he would press the approval button and a challan would be automatically generated for transporting the minerals lawfully.
But he would delay it if a particular dealer/lessee did not pay the cut money beforehand. He would press the approval button only after the dealer/lessee turns up with the cut money, sources said.
Sometimes, the JIMMS incharge located in Harmu in Ranchi would also block the generation of challan at the head office level under the verbal instruction of the high ups if the operators of the mine did not pay the charge fixed for issuing the challan, sources added.
Earlier, all these activities were conducted manually by the district mining officers which led to delay and corruption.
According to sources, the cut money for generating/issuing a challan for sand was fixed at Rs 20 per CFT, Rs 78 for stone chips per cubic. Sometimes, a mines operator would bargain for showing stone chips as boulders and pay only Rs 132 per cubic metre instead of Rs 250 per cubic metre, the mining official said.
This cut money was fixed Rs 500 to Rs 2000 per tonne for coal transportation depending on the quality/grading of the ‘black diamond’, said the official. At present, this cut money is not coming from iron ores as the mines are closed and due for fresh auction, sources said.
A senior mining official said that the practice began in the mining department when K Srinivasan was the mining secretary to issue the despatch challan only when a particular dealer and mines operator paid a fixed illegal fee. This practice was institutionalized when Pooja Singhal took over as the Mining Secretary, the mining official requesting anonymity said. In fact, now a syndicate is operating in the mining department to collect this cut money from the dealers and mines operators, he said.
But then, this rate is applied to those who transported the minerals lawfully. There are reports of huge illegal mining of sand, coal, and stone in the State, particularly in Santhal Pargana. This is a major source of illegal earnings for the mining department officials and their political patrons, sources said.
Both K Srinivasan and Pooja Singhal were not available for comments.
