9.2Gemstone are minerals which come under the purview of Mines and Mineral (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957. Mining of such minerals from any land Government or private-amounts to mining under Section 4(1) of MM (R. & D) Act. No. person can undertake prospecting or mining operations without taking PL/ML from Government over the areas from which the gemstones are found. As such any one other than a lessee finding a gemstone from an area outside the leasehold are had to surrender the same to Government. To encourage people finding gemstones from sporadic areas to surrender the same to Government, the State Government had adopted the policy (in notifications indicated under paras. (1 & 2) that the finders would be paid 50% of the value of the gemstones by OMC which worked as the agent of Government for the entire State. Government allowed OMC to retain the gemstones on payment of royalty as per rules. However, this arrangement has not been very helpful as the finders in interior areas are tempted to sell the gemstones clandestinely to middle men operating in those areas and offering low but ready price for the gemstones. OMC had been getting only Rs. 30-40 lakhs worth of gemstones per year through such purchases which is only an insignificant fraction of the total transactions. As such OMC has suspended its purchasing operations for the last two years. Accordingly, a more rational and workable arrangement has to be devised to enable the finders to freely sell the gemstones found any where from non lease hold areas to the authorised licencees who would pay the royalty to Government for the same and be permitted to dispose of the gemstones in an open and transparent manner.
