Omar Abdullah reviews mining department’s tech-driven surveillance initiative

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today chaired a comprehensive review meeting of the Mining Department at the Civil Secretariat here to assess the department’s modernisation initiatives, regulatory framework, and ongoing reforms in mineral management and surveillance.

A major highlight of the review was a presentation and live demonstration of the Integrated Mining Surveillance System (IMSS) — a digital initiative developed in collaboration with BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics). The IMSS portal and mobile application provide real-time monitoring of mining activities through dashboards integrated with e-Challan and e-Market systems. This innovation aims to enhance transparency, accountability and regulatory compliance in mineral operations across Jammu and Kashmir.

Additional Chief Secretary, Mining, informed the meeting that over 243 triggers have already been generated for field verification through features such as vehicle tracking, GPS-enabled monitoring, PoS-linked e-challaning (integrated with J&K Bank), and on-the-spot enforcement to curb illegal mining.

Omar Abdullah further suggested that the application should allow citizens to register complaints through mobile gadgets to be integrated in the system with satellite imagery or other evidence, strengthening public participation and grievance redressal.

Omar instructed the department to categorise active and non-active mineral vendors or suppliers and establish a dedicated monitoring cell at the Directorate level for continuous data tracking and real-time oversight.

The Chief Minister emphasised that all clearances and NoCs must be obtained in advance before blocks are allocated through auction to avoid procedural and operational delays faced by successful allotees and bidders.

Omar underscored the need to eliminate collusion at lower levels of administration, asserting that illegal operations cannot persist without internal complicity. “With the technological tools now available, any such activity is only possible if there’s collusion at the lower level. The department must use these systems effectively to eliminate that possibility,” the CM said.