BS reported that the Orissa government will soon serve an ultimatum to the authorities of five ports Haldia, Vishakhapatnam, Kakinada, Gangavaram and Dhamara for sharing of information on export of minerals generating from the state through their ports.

The state will reiterate its stand on information sharing in case of ore exports with the authorities of these five ports at a high level meeting to be held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Mr BK Patnaik on October 25.

Mr Patnaik said "We have invited the authorities of the five ports for a meeting scheduled for October 25. Earlier, we had asked these ports to share information on ore exports.”

Mr Manoj Ahuja the state steel & mines secretary had recently written to these port authorities, calling for submission of information related to ore exports to the state director of mines at least once every fort night for verification of the data with the transit permits issued by the mining offices of the state.

Mr Ahuja had pointed out that the decision to share information on ore exports by the ports was taken by the Government of India in 2010 to streamline the movement of consignments by rail and road.

It may be noted that the Union Ministry of Shipping in 2010 had asked all major port trusts of India to adopt measures in line with the measures adopted by Paradip Port Trust to check illegal export of iron ore.

(Sourced from Sourced Business Standard)