As per section 15 (1A) (g) of Mines and Minerals(Development &Regulation) Act, 1957 the State Government is empowered for fixing and collection of rent, royalty, fees, dead rent, fine, fees, or other charges and the time within which and the manner in which these shall be payable.

As such, the State Government has issued notification

fixing royalty for various minor mineral with effect from 01-04-1997 vide No G.O(P) 63/97/ID dt. 10-4-1997.

The quarry operators are alleging that the royalty is too high and but the rate is fixed a decade ago.

The State Government is empowered to make revision of royalty only every three years as per the MM(D&R) Act 1957.

Royalty is @ Rs.16 per tonne [Rule 4 & 17 of KMMC Rules,1967]

Consolidated Royalty is @ Rs.15000 for 12.500 cents/300 “P” forms Rs.25000 for up to 25 cents/600 “P”forms

Rs.50000 for up to 37.500 cents/1500 “P” forms

Rs.100000 for more than 37.500 cents/4000 “P” forms

SEEPAGE OF PUBLIC MONEY

I. QUANTITATIVE LOSSDensity = Mass / Volume so

Mass = Volume X Density

Tonne of rock extracted = m3 rock extracted X 2.7

II. REGULATORY LOSS

“P” Forms are being fabricated, under used and mostly reused

WHY THIS e ENABLED SYSTEM

The passes are being issued indiscriminately without any control and supervision

The passes are being misused towards extraction and transportation of more quantities much beyond the permitted limits

Same passes are being used again and again to dupe the enforcement officials

The fabricated passes are being used by the law breakers for the illegal transport

Step I: Geologist initially assess in advance the mineable mineral in a site scientifically

Step II: The IT Cells of Department of Revenue would create the unique database of the prospective permit holders in the prescribed format [to be prepared scrupulously to cover the entire details]

Step III: The permit holder will be given a user name and password instead of “P” forms

Step IV: The permit holder after extraction of rock; down loads the pass directly from the website just before the start of journey of the vehicle with the load of minor mineral

Step V: Each pass will automatically show the system generated date, time, pass number, number of passes already issued and remaining number of passes to be issued to the permit holder. Pass will be a bar-coded one which can be checked at any point during transit using mobile phones having bar code reading facility.

Step VI: This system can be later integrated with the weigh bridges for the correct assessment of extraction and transport of minor minerals in the state. This will revolutionize the industrial environment in the state and would contribute substantially to the state exchequer.

Department of Mining & Geology: Will assess the mineable mineral in a site on receipt of an application and sends report [in the prescribed format] to DC prescribing the number of passes to be issued along with quantity which can be extracted

Department of Revenue: The District IT Cells will upload the details in the website [To be developed and maintained by State IT Cell-Revenue] which will automatically generate a user name and password for the applicant which will be passed on to his mobile number. The system will start generating passes as and when the applicant log on to the website.

Enforcement agencies [Police, Revenue, Motor vehicles, Weighs & Measures, Pollution Control Board etc]: Check the passes during transit using mobile phones having the facility for reading the bar codes.

Rule amendment: Only the EDS Rules need to be amended towards downloading “P” forms prescribed in KMMC Rules, 1967 from the website.

Finance: At less than Rs.5.00 lakhs expenditure the entire Management Information System would be in place and it will be fully developed and managed by the IT Cells of Revenue.

Attitude: The stakeholder departments should whole heartedly support the system for the benefit of the society in general

?? ?Dr.D.Sajith Babu94472712439447271243sajithrevenuedc@gmail.com