LAHORE – Provincial Minister for Mines and Minerals Dr Tanvir-ul-Islam has said that all necessary steps will be taken for the development of the mineral sector to harness the natural resources of Pakistan.
He was addressing a meeting after assuming office of the department. Secretary Mines and Minerals Shahid Mehmood, Additional Secretary Rao Ghulam Hussain, Chief Inspector Mines Tahzeeb-ul-Hassan Ansari and other senior officers were also present. The minister was given a detailed briefing on development of the department, Punjab Mines and Minerals Development Corporation, Chief Inspector of Mines, performance of various sections as well as development projects.
The meeting was informed that the Mines and Minerals Department deposited Rs 1.5 billion annually in the national exchequer while millions of rupees were also spent on the welfare and provision of medical, education and housing facilities to thousands of workers associated with the mining sector.
It was further noted that hospitals, medical centres as well as schools were also functioning in districts concerned for the benefit of workers and their families while talented children of workers were also given scholarships.
Dr Tanvir declared that the pace of work on development projects should be accelerated to increase income generation of the department. He also stressed that ensuring transparency in the process of awarding contracts.
Department of mines and Minerals was created in 2002 for development of mineral sector of the province. But its functionaries have lured the authorities in fleecing investors in the mineral sector and
instead of developmental function ,the department has adopted a form of revenue department like
entity. It boasts of revenue of 1.5 billion rupees but has nothing to report on development of new mineral reserves how much its efforts have added to the GDP.
The government must discourage the departmental officials for indulging in lucrative revenue generation role and instead should give targets to its Directorate of Mineral Exploration for developing new mineral reserves . The revenue related matters of the Mines and Mineral department need to be assigned to the existing Revenue Department
In fact the department is being run without any mining laws legislated by the proper forum and rather by the departmental rules called Punjab Mining Concessions Rules 2002, and policies framed by the functionaries of the department who are themselves supposed to be governed by those rules.
The measure of the anti investment working of the Punjab Mineral Department can easily be judged by an interesting comparision ;
In East Punjab Amratsar application fee for mining lease is about Rs. 400 which is refundable if the application is not granted.
In Mines and Mineral Department Lahore ,about 40 Km from Amratsar . the application fee for mineral title is Rs. 2000 plus other overheads , all non refundable if the application is not granted.
Even the exorbitant fees do not serve the purpose of the functionaries of the department and instead
they do not grant the mineral title to the applicant, but exploiting the initial prospection work and data of the applicant for the applied for area , they auction the applied for area for millions of rupees.
The recent World Bank report on grant of mineral titles has termed the auctioning mode of grant of mineral titles a potentaily corrupt mode as compared to the normal mode of granting under the normal rules.
Engr Abul Majid Ghori
17 A Street 35
F-7/1 Islamabad
Mobile 0321 5175041
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