Amit for easing out mining portal for people’s convenience

Srinagar, Feb 06: Secretary Mining Amit Sharma on Monday issued explicit directions regarding easing out mining portal functioning during a comprehensive review meeting on ongoing mining works in the Kashmir division held at Civil Secretariat, here.
The meeting was attended by Director Geology & Mining, Director Finance, all officers of the department including District Mining Officers of Kashmir division and Jammu Division (virtually), officers of J&K Minerals Corporation, Senior Law Officer, Deputy Director Planning, and others.
During the meeting, the Secretary issued clear directions that the department has now entered an advanced phase of provisioning online services through 100% usage of e-Challan and e-Marketplace including other G2B2C services and it is high time to ease out the functioning of the Mining Portal for ensuring maximum public convenience.
Apart from sorting out some important technical glitches in a healthy brainstorming session held between DMOs, departmental IT experts and Developers’ team, the Mining Department decided to resort to auto approval of e-Challans which has also been prescribed under the rules. This shall indeed give a lot of respite to public applying through this online mechanism and also to the teams/staff of respective DMO offices who can now onwards focus on many other important aspects of mining and related works.
Amit Sharma directed that there should be a uniform measurement of quantity in terms of Metric Tonnes and not Cubic Feet. He asked the Mining Portal Development Team to take the necessary steps to remove this anomaly at the earliest.
It was decided that there should be fortnightly regular review meetings to be held between the Portal Developers’ team and DMOs to keep improvising upon the existing portal features which shall lead to the incorporation of necessary improvements so that the public of J&K can feel more comfortable while purchasing mining material through Government e-Marketplace <www.geologymining.jk.gov.in> in the times to come.
The Secretary directed all DMOs, especially those working in all ten Kashmir districts, to keep the mining activity vibrant all through these ongoing winter months. “It should be ensured that all ongoing prestigious projects of national importance like Ring Road, NH expansion, Railways works, etc keep getting sufficient material through legitimate means so that these projects are completed well within the prescribed timelines,” he added.
The Secretary also directed the director to hold a meeting this week only with Lessees of e-auctioned blocks and project executing agencies so as to ensure the provisioning of required quantities of mining materials for these ongoing projects.