March 26, 2002

    Emphasizing on the relevance of GSI, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister for Coal & Mines said that it has a crucial role to pay in sustainable development of natural resources. He said that GSI must identify new thrust areas and reorient and upgrade itself for present day requirements. The organization needs to be nurtured to make it modern and strong to serve the nation more effectively.

    Shri Paswan said that survey of all the districts will be done for which 6 survey teams have been constituted. He urged the members of Consultative Committee to inform the Department in case they have knowledge/information about deposits in particular district which can be surveyed on priority. He said that evaluation of minerals on regional scale by adopting modern concepts and techniques by detailed survey, sampling, deep drilling, backed by high precision laboratory analyses will be conducted.

    The Department of Mines has accepted the recommendations of expert panel constituted on the advise of Standing Committee on Industries and action plans are being drawn for upgradation in technology, in field data acquisition through ground, airborne and marine surveys. The Minister informed that Planning Commission has agreed to provide an amount of Rs. 1100 crores during the Tenth Plan against Rs. 451.5 crore for the Ninth Plan for modernization of GSI.

    The Minister informed that some structural changes are required to make the organization more vibrant and responsive to societal needs. The Ministry is in the process of setting up a high-power expert committee to suggest these changes to redefine the role of GSI in the years ahead.

    The Minister informed that during the last five years the State of Rajasthan was brought on the gold map of the country and many promising gold occurrences have been located in the States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand.