57th Meeting of State Geological Programming Board | 30 Mar 2023

Why in News?

The 57th meeting of the State Geological Programming Board was held at the Jaipur Secretariat on 29 March 2023, which was presided over by Dr. Subodh Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, State Mines Department.

Key Points

• Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Subodh Aggarwal said in the meeting that, with the discovery and exploitation of petroleum-natural gas as a result of planned mineral exploration and auction of mineral blocks in the state, now the country is going to develop as Jaisalmer Cement Hub on the world map.
• Apart from this, new deposits of uranium, rare earth elements, limestone, lignite, iron ore, copper, zinc, garnet etc. are being discovered daily in the state.
• Dr. Subodh Aggarwal said that in the year 2023-24, work will be done through 31 different projects for the exploration of mineral limestone, ferrous metal, decorative stone, industrial mineral and other minerals and the work of reserves of semi-precious stone is also to be speeded up.
• In the meeting, the works of the Geology Wing were underlined in the work of exploration and preparation of major and minor blocks. The aim of the state is to study the best practices of Odisha and adopt a practical process for the state, so that it can become the country's leading state in revenue generation in the mining sector.
• The department is also progressing year by year in revenue generation; more and more auctions of major and minor blocks have encouraged legal mining and increased revenue and employment.
• Mr. Sandesh Nayak, Director of Mines said that along with the economic and industrial development of the state, the mineral sector is playing an important role in the agriculture sector. Along with abundant reserves of rock phosphate, mineral fertilisers are being prepared from gypsum etc., while now the search work of potash has been given more pace, so that the dependence on import from abroad can be reduced by starting the mining of potash in a planned manner.
• Commendable work is being done in the mineral sector in the state. Geophysical, geochemical, ground geophysical and aero geophysical work is also being done by GSI. Reserves of valuable minerals have been discovered in the state and the search work is going on and with the help of RSMET, exploration work is getting accelerated in the state.