STATE TIMES NEWS
HYDERABAD: Secretary Mining, Amit Sharma, while representing Jammu and Kashmir in two-day National Mines Ministers’ conference held at Hyderabad, on Saturday shared recent initiatives taken up by the UT administration towards ensuring added transparency and raising productivity in the Coal and Mining sectors.
The conference was presided over by Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal & Mines, Pralhad Joshi, who shared his vision of taking nation forward in these key high potential sectors.
Amit Sharma, during his address, mentioned about several key initiatives undertaken in J&K recently which inter alia included launch of G2B2C portal for provisioning of e-Marketplace to sellers and buyers of mining materials and introduction of QR-code based e-Challans to ensure transparency in working of department, initiation of Mining Surveillance System, hi-tech mineral check posts and upcoming project of using drone and PTZ cameras for random checking of illegal mining at vulnerable points.
Amit also requested Coal and Mining Ministries to support Kalakote mining operations which produce top quality Anthracite coal (usually found in Australia) for revamping the coal mining operations there. He further urged upon them to help in exploitation of Padder Sapphire (Neelam) reserves and huge underlying Lithium reserves (used for electric batteries) which have been discovered off-late in Reasi and Rajouri belts of the Union Territory by Geological Survey of India (GSI).
Union Minister assured complete support to the UT in further streamlining these vital sectors having vast potential in the region.
Meanwhile, Union Coal Secretary, Anil Kumar Jain and Director General, GSI, Dr S.Raju also expressed commitment for total support on issues flagged by Mining Secretary J&K while mentioning that they shall conduct visits soon here for addressing most of these issues instantaneously.
Later, Amit Sharma expressed gratitude towards Union Government team for their overwhelming response to issues regarding coal and mines sectors of J&K. He invited them to J&K for carrying forward the ongoing progressive reforms in the Union Territory.