Constitutional bodies need to be educated on mining: Official

Hyderabad: Constitutional bodies such as parliament and judiciary need to be educated on the importance of mining and its impact on country`s economic prospects, a senior bureaucrat of Ministry of Rural Development said here on Saturday. S Vijay Kumar, former mining secretary and currently the Secretary, Department of Rural Development, also said the mining industry should also play a key role in complying with the legal framework. "I think we need to educate policy makers, parliamentarians, and judiciary. Today, judiciary is influencing the way mining is done, more than parliament in many ways which perhaps is not correct," Vijay Kumar said at a panel discussion on "Governance in Mining". "...But they need to know what is mining, why mining is necessary, why the mineral resources are important. And perhaps what needs to be done is to be able to do so with less disturbance and less pollution," he opined. Observing that mining is essential for national development, Vijay Kumar said societies which failed to develop technologies and material resources collapsed while societies which did so prospered. "Industry also takes share of this responsibility. More so the regulatory agencies can regulate when they inspect, but the industry needs itself to manage mining activities within an ethical and legal framework," he asserted. According to him, mining industry, in the current scenario, is perceived as money spinner besides causing pollution which is in reality not fully correct. "That is very unfortunate development that has actually hit not only that part of mining community which I could call the black sheep, but the entire mining community has been tarred with the same brush," he opined. He said mining and geology institutions and agencies of both Central and state governments should be strengthened to increase the capacity building.