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| Geology, Mining Dept. being revived to boost mineral extraction | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 21- The National Conference led coalition Government has decided to reactivate the Department of Geology and Mining, which according to it has become "defunct”. Official sources said that several crores of rupees were being earmarked for building the infrastructure required to make the Department to be on its feet.
The sources said that over the years the Department of Geology and Mining had been neglected as the successive Governments had felt that its utility had been lost on the plea that its experts had already identified over 18 different minerals that were found in the state. And for the extraction of these minerals the successive Governments had given weightage to the private sector.
However, the Government has realized the importance of the Department after it found that full exploitation of the mineral wealth could not be completed in the state because the Department lacked technology based strategy. Still it was able to collect the royalty to tune of Rs.1003.54 crores in 2007 against Rs.822 crores in 2006.
The official sources said that once the department of Geology and Mining was fully revived and reactivated its experts will be assigned the task of identifying more mineral wealth in the state so that tapping of more minerals could add to the state's revenue. At present, among the 18 different minerals 5,000 million tons of limestone, 162 million tons of gypsum, 405 million tons of marble are reported available in Kupwara district. In addition to this the state has vast resources of granite, coal, sapphire and bauxite.
Sources said that scientific ways for extracting sapphire, gypsum, granite and marble could help the state in generating scope for new industrial units based on these minerals. Once it was done the state could have more jobs for the unemployed youth. It has been seen that most of the industrial units, especially in the Jammu region, are producing goods on the basis of imported raw material which boosts the cost level thereby making it difficult for unit holders to enter into the competitive market. Once industrial units based on local raw material are set up it could ensure better market potential.
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