(a) whether the Government has prepared any action plan for the new mine surveillance system through a dashboard and mobile application;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the extent to which it is likely to be useful for efficiently regulate the system to avoid loopholes and to stop the unauthorized mining in the country?
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF COAL, POWER, NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY AND MINES (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) & (b): The Ministry of Mines, through Indian Bureau of Mines )IBM(, has developed the Mining Surveillance System (MSS), in collaboration with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics )BISAG(, Gandhinagar, to use space technology for facilitating State Governments in curbing illegal mining activities in the country.
An executive dashboard has been designed under MSS to work as a decision support system. A user-friendly mobile app has been created to be used by district level mining officials of state Governments to submit compliance reports of their inspections. This mobile app can also be used by general public for reporting likely illegal mining cases.
(c): The system checks to the extent of 500 meters around the existing mining lease boundary to search for any unusual activity which is likely to be illegal mining. Any discrepancy if found is flagged-off as a trigger, which requires filed verification to be done by the officials of the mining department of the State Government. The MSS has been developed for major mineral leases in the country.
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