The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided that e-auction would be the sole method of allocating the mineral blocks in future in all the districts of the state.
“All previous orders in this regard have already lapsed,” a government order said.
It also said that for the purpose of e-auction, the district level auction committees have already been constituted under the chairmanship of district development commissioners.
SEs, PWD (R&B) and PHE, irrigation and flood control department, district treasury officer concerned, officer from the department of geology and mining not below the rank of deputy director/mining engineer are the members of the district level committees while district mineral officer concerned shall be the member secretary, it said.
“The notification of first round of auction is likely to be issued on March 23, 2019 and first round of e-auction will be done around April 13-14, 2019,” the order further said.
Including the district development commissioners, all committee members are required to immediately obtain digital signatures, it further said.
“Therefore, DDCs must ensure that including himself/herself, all committee members obtain digital signatures by March 23, 2019 positively. They may seek the assistance of respective NIC Officers in their districts or in case of any difficulty contact Vishat Mahajan, project manager, J&K SICOP,” the order added.
It has also been made clear that in case of transfer of any committee member, district development commissioners will be free to co-opt any other officer equivalent in rank at their discretion.
Government also said that the detailed guidelines for e-auction is likely to be issued latest by March 23, 2019 and all DDCs and committee members are required to go through and fully understand the process.
In case of any confusion, it said, they may again contact Vishal Mahagan, project manager IT, J&K SICOP.
It also said that there will be a 21 day provision from the issuance of notification enabling all the interested parties to register themselves and get acquainted with the process.
“The same applies to DDCs and his team. E-auction will be a single day affair for which detailed guidelines will be issued. It is extremely important that on the conclusion of the e-auction process, DDC will declare the successful bidder within two hours of the conclusion of the process. The same should be published in next day’s newspaper also,” it said.
“This entire process envisages huge amount of revenue and in the past there have been allegations of malpractices adopted by various parties for obtaining minor mineral blocks. Therefore, all DDCs are once again requested to take this process extremely seriously and ensure that entire e-auction process is conducted flawless and without any doubt,” it added.