Justice Shah Commission gets another year and Rs50 lakh more to probe illegal mining
21 Jul 2012
The government has extended the tenure of the Justice MB Shah Commission of Inquiry and allowed an additional Rs50 lakh in expenditure towards the extended period of inquiry.
The Justice MB Shah Commission of Inquiry, which was set up on 22 November 2011 to enquire into cases of illegal mining in the mineral-rich states of the country, will now function till 16 July 2013.
An official release on Friday said the commission sought an year's extension for collecting and compiling information on mining from seven important mineral producing states, ''which is quite voluminous.''
The commission was set up to identify cases of illegal mining, and also to identify and rectify management, regulatory and monitoring system failures in curbing illegal mining.
The commission, which was expected to look into mining law lapses in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Madhya Pradesh, was supposed to submit its final report on 18 May 2012.
The cabinet panel headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had met last evening and approved the plea of the one-man commission to extend the term as it needed more time to cover all these states.