CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: The Meghalaya government has initiated efforts to simplify the process of obtaining licenses and permits for minor minerals such as sand and stone quarrying to promote legal mining and support small-scale miners.
Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home (Police), Prestone Tynsong, informed about the initiative during a media briefing, highlighting the formation of a special committee to review and simplify the concession rules under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR).
"Today we convened the first meeting of a committee constituted by the forest department to revisit and to review again the present form of the concession rules of the MMDR act because in MMDR, we have also one part of the act, which is known as minor minerals. So, minor minerals mean things like sand, stone quarrying, and mining of these items are there," Tynsong explained.
"This meeting brought together members of the Joint Action Committee and miners from various districts. It served as an introductory session to discuss the issues with the existing rules. I have directed the forest, mining and geology, and law departments to conduct a detailed study and identify areas where we can simplify the clauses and ease the process for obtaining licenses or quarry permits," he said.
Tynsong also addressed the problem of illegal sand mining in the state, linking it to the cumbersome and overly technical nature of the current system.
Asked about the alleged sand mining going on in the state, Tynsong said, "...those poor people in the village, especially, they have the sand quarry stone quarry. So they wanted to apply for a license, or they wanted to apply for a mining lease or quarry permit, but the process is so technical. The process is so long that, on the basis of that, we have this committee, this special community, to work out and simplify the procedure and the process of application so that even these small miners can understand the way of application for getting the mining lease or the quarry permit."
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