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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

03/08/22 05:32 AM IST

Kerala raises concerns about proposed amendments to law governing mines and mines and minerals

In News 
  • The Kerala government has opposed the new set of proposed amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.
Key Concerns 
  • The main objection is against the sixth item in the note for consultation sent to the State governments that will empower the Centre to auction some minerals from the list of atomic minerals.
  • Allowing the private sector to engage in beach sand mining in the environmentally significant and ecologically fragile coastal region of Kerala will lead to an environmental catastrophe.
  • Entry 23 of List II and Article 246(3): State Governments are the owners of the mines and minerals located within the territory of the State concerned, and under Entry 23 of List II of the Constitution and the Constitutional right of the State under Article 246(3), State Assemblies can make laws on such minerals.
Article 246(3) 
  • The Legislature of any State has exclusive power to make laws for such State or any part thereof with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List II in the Seventh Schedule (in this Constitution referred to as the “State List”).
Monazite:
  •  It is one of the beach sand minerals that contain rare earth like lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium etc.
  • It also contains thorium which is a “prescribed substance”, the list of which was revised in 2006 under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.
  • It is a rare phosphate mineral that usually occurs in small isolated grains in Igneous and Metamorphic rocks such as granite, pegmatite, schist, and gneiss.
  • It is translucent and one of the most resistant minerals to weathering.
  • It is a radioactive atomic mineral used for the production of Thorium (as high as 500 ppm) and has the potential to be used as fuel in the nuclear power system.
Source- The Hindu 

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