CAG Slams OMC: Odisha Mining Corporation Faces Rs 1328 Crore Penalty for Excess Mining
India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has called out the state-run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) for serious compliance problems. According to the CAG, OMC now owes Rs 1,328.37 crore in penalties after going over production limits. The details came from a report on state public sector undertakings, presented in the Odisha Assembly. The violations happened in 2018–19 at two sites: Kodingamali bauxite mine and Sukrangi chromite mine.
Most of the penalty is tied to Kodingamali. Here, OMC took out 27 lakh metric tonnes of ore, even though it only had permission for 22.6 lakh metric tonnes. That’s 4.4 lakh tonnes over the allowed limit, leading to a massive penalty of Rs 1,298.39 crore. At Sukrangi, OMC extracted 1.67 lakh metric tonnes, while the environmental clearance was just 1.30 lakh metric tonnes. This extra 37,100 tonnes brought an additional penalty of Rs 29.98 crore.
The CAG didn’t stop at just listing penalties. The report dug up past issues too — including earlier fines and problems with how OMC runs its operations. After a 2017 Supreme Court judgment on illegal mining, OMC had already paid Rs 4,364.15 crore in penalties by 2022: that’s Rs 3,761.88 crore for environmental and forest clearances and another Rs 602.27 crore for going beyond mining limits. On top of that, out of OMC’s 36 mining leases, half — 18 — haven’t been used for anywhere from six to 35 years. That’s a glaring case of mismanaging resources.
Even with a hefty turnover of Rs 23,630.79 crore, CAG didn’t hold back. The auditor pointed to unnecessary spending and poor oversight. To fix all this, the CAG urged OMC to tighten up its compliance, plan better, review contracts more carefully, and get stricter about controlling costs — all to keep its finances solid and stay in line with environmental rules.
