Proposed Mining Policy to Provide Ease of Doing Business to Industry Stakeholders: Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday announced that the mining policy being framed by the Centre will focus on providing ease of doing business by ensuring that all necessary clearances are granted within three months, enabling extraction to begin in the fourth month. He emphasized that the new policy would remove all bottlenecks in the mining process. The Minister for Road Transport and Highways was speaking at the event "India@100 – Charting Vidarbha’s Journey to a Developed India" in Nagpur. Referring to ongoing developments in mining and steel in Gadchiroli district, Vidarbha, Gadkari said the central government is in the process of finalizing the mining policy. He revealed that the policy had recently come up for approval in a cabinet meeting. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not fully convinced about certain aspects. After Gadkari shared his suggestions, the Prime Minister directed the cabinet secretary to review and discuss the policy with him. Gadkari proposed that the mining process should begin at the earliest possible time, with environmental clearance granted within one month. He further suggested that both the state and central governments should issue all required permissions within three months so that production can commence in the fourth month. “This approach will ensure ease of doing business and remove all existing hurdles,” he said. Highlighting the employment potential of mining in Vidarbha, Gadkari recalled the philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. “Nehruji believed in maximum production, while Gandhiji emphasized maximum production with the involvement of the maximum number of people,” he noted.