The Uttar Pradesh government has raised a revenue of Rs 400 crore from mining business through its portal ‘Mine Mitra’, which is used to issue transit passes through Mineral Management Services of the portal.
A government official said, “A total of 2.16 crore transit passes were provided under EMM-11, 9.22 lakh under E-Farm C and 38.87 lakh under ISTP of Mineral Management Services since 2017. Besides, online payment was made to 506 leasees and 2,154 brick kilns since July 2020.”
The ‘Mine Mitra’ portal was developed by the Yogi government to bring transparency into mining business, check illegal activities and provide accountable e-services to common people, farmers, leasees and transporters. The portal also aimed at ending monopolies in the mining industry, encouraging legal mining and providing a level playing field for new entrepreneurs to ensure transparency in the business and increase the state’s revenue.
The portal has been developed in consultation with the Directorate of Geology & Mining and is currently providing several services like online mineral management for the leasees, stockists and transporters, services for citizens and farmers, Integrated Mining Surveillance System and e-commerce platform ‘Mineral Mart’ for consumers and suppliers. For common people and farmers, the state government has disposed off 1155 applications for stock licences, issued 1279 permits for agricultural land with mineral deposits, 435 for minerals in private land, 9697 permits for mining on common soil and 1031 for buildings where minerals were discovered during construction since July, 2020.
Under Integrated Mining Surveillance System service of the portal, the Yogi government has done geo-fencing of 466 areas, installed PTZ cameras & weigh bridge in mines in 330 areas, put RFID-based mining tag on over 80,000 heavy vehicles and set up automated check gates of which 16 are currently operational while work is underway on seven others.
Automated mining check gates are currently operational in Fatehpur, Etawah, Baghpat, Jalaun, Mahoba, Banda, Saharanpur, Sonbhadra and Jhansi. The system aimed at checking overloading and illegal mining practices through regular monitoring of vehicles.
