The Andhra Pradesh government struggles to curb illegal mining beyond allotted areas, a practice lasting over three decades. This leads to a revenue loss of ₹5-6 crore daily. Starting January 2025, drones will assist in monitoring, with joint oversight from multiple departments
Published Dec 11, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 11, 2024 | 8:00 AM
Andhra Pradesh government to employ drone technology to check illegal quarrying of minerals(Supplied)
The Andhra Pradesh government is keen on using drone technology to prevent illegal mining of minerals.
It hopes to net an additional income of ₹2,000 crore through a penalty on illegal mining. The government also hopes to collect seigniorage and mining cess regularly from the lessees.
The state government is finding it difficult to curb mining in the area, which happens in more land than allotted to a lessee. This illegal practice has been going on for more than three decades.
There is a dip in revenue because the excess minerals from the area that the lessee mines are not accounted for. According to officials, the state government is losing about ₹5 crore to ₹6 crore per day.
The use of drones would begin from January 2025. The vigil will be maintained jointly by mines, commercial taxes and transport departments. An action plan is already in place.
According to sources, drone technology will be used to monitor the practice of moving minerals.
The drones would make an inspection of the area given under lease to the lessee. 3-D pictures would be taken of the areas where mining is allowed. This would help in determining geo-coordinates for the area given on lease.
Every month, a district level officers’ team, every six months, a region level team and every one year, a state level team will inspect the area where mining is done.
The officials will have a better assessment of the extent of mining operations and verify whether the lessee is paying seigniorage or mining cess regularly.
Official sources said that once an assessment is made, a penalty could be levied on the lessee for mining in an area that is in excess of the area allotted to him. All along the route the mineral is transported, CCTV cameras would be installed. All the vehicles that transport minerals would have GPS trackers. The officials are busy linking all the weigh bridges in the state with the portal of the mines department.
(Edited by Ananya Rao)
