Bhubaneswar, April 25 (IANS): An Odisha government inter-departmental committee which met to extend the lease validity of 11 iron ore and manganese mines on Saturday found that the mines have no statutory clearances.

The committee headed by Development Commissioner U.N. Behera found that none of these mines had statutory clearances to operate under the amended Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 2015.

Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty said the committee examined the lease validity of the 11 mines to extend their lease period as per the MMDR Act.

"The status of the 11 closed mines was placed before the inter-departmental committee and it discussed the validity of extending the lease of these mines under the new provisions of the MMDR Act. However, the mines have no statutory clearances," said Mohanty.

The closed, non-captive mines that have no statutory clearances, includes OMM mines, R.P. Sao mines, Narayani sons, Tarini minerals and Kalinga Mining Corporation.

The government will be informed about the recommendations of the committee, added Mohanty.

As per the provisions of the amended MMDR Act, the lease of mines having all statutory clearances can be extended to operate. The non-captive mines can operate till 2020 while the captive mines can operate till 2030 before the mines go under the hammer.

Recently, the state government had extended the lease period of 26 mines, directing the lease holders to execute supplementary lease deeds within three months to operate their mines.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had approved re-opening of the mines following recommendations of the inter-departmental committee as per the provisions of the MMDR Act.