Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The political row over the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, intensified in Odisha on Thursday, with the Congress saying it would launch an economic blockade in mineral-rich districts if the legislation is not withdrawn. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee’s Political Affairs Committee chaired by AICC Odisha in-charge Lalji Desai.
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The BJD and the Congress have both opposed the new mining law and demanded a special session of the Assembly to discuss it. The state government rejected the allegations, while senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan accused BJD president and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik of misleading people over the Bill.
In a statement, the OPCC said, “It was decided at the PAC that if the President did not immediately withdraw this (MMDR) anti-Odisha and anti-tribal law, an economic blockade would be imposed in the districts where the mines of the state were located.”
The PAC also approved a resolution opposing the law at a meeting of INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, Forward Bloc, NCP and SP.
OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das said, “The MMDR Bill undermines Odisha’s rights over its mineral resources and will be firmly opposed. We will urge the President to withhold assent to the Bill. We also demand an immediate special session of the Assembly to discuss its implications for Odisha.”
Mines Minister BB Jena rejected the Opposition’s charge. “The allegations made by the opposition are not correct. The new mining law will not harm any state, including Odisha. The state will get its mining revenue as usual,” he said.
Pradhan, in a video message posted on social media, responded to Patnaik’s appeal on Wednesday asking people to oppose the law. He said, “Former Chief Minister of Odisha and Leader of Opposition @Naveen_Odisha is trying to mislead the people of Odisha by releasing a video regarding the MMDR Amendment Bill-2026. This new bill brought by the Modi government is a historic step for the country’s mining security and the economic future of Odisha.”
He said Odisha would not lose revenue under the new law and claimed that 100 per cent of auction premium, royalty and District Mineral Foundation funds would continue to go to the state government.
Pradhan also countered Patnaik’s claim that his government had brought Odisha out of bankruptcy through fiscal management.
He said the state’s financial condition improved because of the Modi government’s 2015 changes to the MMDR Act, which raised ad valorem royalty from 10 per cent to 15 per cent and created the DMF fund.
He said Odisha’s mining revenue rose from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore because of those reforms and that the state had received Rs 37,000 crore from the DMF fund.
In his social media post, Pradhan said, “Naveen Babu, this is not yours, but a reflection of the Modi government’s clean policies. You are crying crocodile tears by talking about the Orissa Rural Infrastructure and Socio-Economic Development Act of 2004, which was struck down by the Hon’ble High Court in 2005, and your government only kept on filing cases in the Supreme Court for 18 years from 2006 to 2024, without taking any action.”
Rejecting Patnaik’s claim that he left Rs 50,000 crore in the state coffers when he exited office, Pradhan added, “When you took charge in 2000, the total debt of the state was Rs 18,000 crore, but by the time you left, people were burdened with a total debt of over Rs 96,000 crore. Is increasing per capita debt in the state from Rs 6,000 to Rs 26,000 your economic reform?”
BJD chief whip in the Assembly Pramila Mallik said the state would suffer because it would lose the power to impose taxes or cesses on mining. “Let us explain how Odisha will gain from the mining after the Centre took over all its rights. The state cannot impose any tax or cesses. The state will severely suffer,” she said.
With the Congress threatening an economic blockade, the BJD and the Congress pressing for a special Assembly session, and the BJP-led side insisting that Odisha’s mining revenue will remain protected, the dispute over the new mining law has widened sharply in the state.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
