TN govt goes hi-tech to check illegal mining, boost revenue
The e-permit system will help monitor and control the transportation of minerals beyond the allowed quantities," said a senior official
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CHENNAI: The Department of Geology and Mines will soon be able to monitor the quantity of quarried minerals and track every single transportation of these minerals across the state, in a move aimed at addressing irregularities, improving transparency, and boosting the state’s annual revenue generation, which currently stands at around Rs 1,800 crore.
Senior officials told DT Next that the department is launching an e-permit system in another 10 days for transporting minerals from quarries. The 'Online Mineral Management System and Surveillance Mechanism' aims to end illegal mining, augment revenue and efficiently administer mineral wealth. "The e-permit system will help monitor and control the transportation of minerals beyond the allowed quantities," said a senior official.
The department has developed software for the e-permit system with the assistance of the e-Governance Agency. "We've integrated the weighing machines at quarry sites with the software, with safety features to prevent tampering. Once the vehicle loaded with minerals is weighed, the data will appear on the e-permit. Also, the loading and unloading points, and the distance between the two locations," explained another official.
This system will effectively end the illegal transportation of minerals beyond the permissible quantity, he said.
The department has also instructed lessees to equip their vehicles with GPS devices for real-time tracking. It would take a couple of months.
"We've mapped the quarries using DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System). Once fitted with GPS, we can track when and at what time a vehicle enters the quarry. This will ease our work and improve efficiency in monitoring the quarrying activities from the office itself," he said. There are around 1,500 quarries in the state.
This is in addition to the online bulk permit system, launched in September last year, which allows lessees to generate bulk permits from the portal upon uploading environmental clearance and the mining plan.
“Once verified and approved, the lessee can generate permits for excavation of the permitted quantity of minerals as outlined in the mining plan for each year. The system will play a key role in preventing over-mining,” said a senior official.
