New Delhi: Union Minister of Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi chaired the 4th governing body meeting of the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) in New Delhi on Wednesday. During the meeting, Minister said that NMET has received the highest ever release of funds of Rs 125 crore and approved projects cost of Rs 748 crore in the Financial Year 2021-22 (FY'22). Stating that as a fully autonomous body at present, funds will not be a limiting factor for NMET operations, the Minister urged the state governments to speed up exploration and mining activities to give further fillip to AtmaNirbhar Bharat.
Pralhad Joshi said that six mineral blocks funded by NMET were auctioned by four state governments during 2021-22 with a revenue generation stream of Rs 1.63 lakh crore. Rs 880 lakh has been released as an incentive during 2021-22 in favour of 14 state governments by the centre. The recent reforms undertaken in the mining sector are based on the views obtained from state governments, the Minister added.
The meeting was also attended by Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Mr Hardeep Singh Puri and the Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh as members of the governing body. Both the Ministers stressed on the need to hold fruitful meetings with stakeholders from state governments for creating further momentum in exploration and mining.
Ministers of State Governments holding charge of Mines and Geology from the states of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh also attended today's meeting.
During the financial year 2021-22, NMET has performed exceedingly well in terms of sanctions of projects and providing funds to exploration agencies, surpassing the performance of previous years. The National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) was established in 2015 with the objective to increase mineral exploration in the country. The Governing Body (GB) of NMET lays down the broad policy framework for the functioning of the Trust and reviews its work.
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