Consider the following statements:
- Statement-I: In India, State Governments have no power for making rules for grant of concessions in respect of extraction of minor minerals even though such minerals are located in their territories.
- Statement-II: In India, the Central Government has the power to notify minor minerals under the relevant law.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) Statement I is not correct but Statement II is correct
Statement I is wrong. Mines and minerals are a State subject, subject to Union control, and under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 the State Governments frame the rules for concessions in minor minerals. Statement II is right: under the same Act the Central Government can notify further minerals as minor minerals.
- ✗ Statement-I Section 15(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowers the State Government to make rules regulating the grant of quarry leases, mining leases and other concessions for minor minerals. The Constitution's State List also covers regulation of mines and mineral development, subject to Union control.
- ✓ Statement-II Section 3(e) of the Act defines minor minerals as building stones, gravel, ordinary clay and ordinary sand (other than sand used for prescribed purposes) and any other mineral the Central Government declares, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be a minor mineral.
Remember · Minor minerals: State Governments make the concession rules; the Central Government notifies what counts as a minor mineral (MMDR Act, 1957).
Sources
- The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (India Code, Legislative Department), section 15(1) ↗ “15. Power of State Governments to make rules in respect of minor minerals.―(1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules for, regulating the grant of … “minor minerals” means building stones, gravel, ordinary clay, ordinary sand other than sand used for prescribed purposes, and any other mineral which the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a minor mineral;”
- The Constitution of India (Legislative Department, Government of India), Seventh Schedule, List II (State List), entry 23 ↗ “Regulation of mines and mineral development subject to the provisions of List I with respect to regulation and development under the control of the Union. … Regulation of mines and mineral development to the extent to which such regulation and development under the control of the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·