National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

offering to set up such industry in the state, the state government may grant the MLfor such an ore body to the applicant which it adjudges to be the most deserving interms of the criteria (a) to (d) of Section 11 (3) of the Act. In such cases, the full costof exploration by the public agencies should be recovered.’10. Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh raised the issue of theduration of concessions and suggested that the duration of the exclusive LAPLsshould be less than eight years as LAPLs were granted only when some amount ofwork had already been done by the applicant and it would not be appropriate to blockthe area under LAPL for a long duration. This issue was discussed and it was agreedthat ‘the duration of the exclusive LAPL would be six years extendable by anothertwo years’.11. Secretary (Industry), Government of Jharkhand, opined that the point made underSecurity of Tenure that ‘a RP (non-exclusive) holder should have an automatic rightto a PL on first-come-first-served basis with no exceptions or exemptions‘ was toostrong and should be reformulated. Chairman remarked that the idea was to eliminatediscretionary powers of the Centre /state. After further deliberation it was agreed todelete the words ’with no exceptions or exemptions’.12. Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Chhatisgarh, Secretary (Industry)Government of Jharkhand, and Secretary (Steel and Mines), Government of Orissadrew attention to the changes recommended in Section 4A(1) and suggested that thewords ‘in the interest of national security‘ could be replaced with ‘in the interest ofnational security and public works’ and Rule 27(1)(b) could be amended to give anautomatic right to the miner to mine only the associated minerals discovered and notthe additional minerals discovered. Further, the recommendations regarding deletionof Rule 27(1)(m) and Rule 27(3) of MCR that give the authority to the stategovernment to pre-empt minerals and put restrictive conditions in concessions wasdiscussed and it was agreed these Rules needed to be eliminated. The lease deed formshould be exhaustive and should include all minerals and associated minerals forwhich the applicant may have applied and to which he may be entitled. The formshould also contain the possibility of the state government imposing additionalconditions on captive miners and value adders. The suggestions were accepted for227