Centre plans to bring a tough law to effectively deal with illegal mining. Talking to AIR, the Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Santha Sheela Nair said a clause has been proposed in the new legislation to give power to Cenre to intervene in case state governments fail to address the issue of illegal mining. The issue has been hogging limelight following reports of illegal mining in Karntaka recently. <br/><br/><br/>The secretary said the draft legislation will be discussed by the group of ministers headed by the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee next week and it takes care of most of the issues raised by Karnataka Lok Ayukta recently. She said, after approval by the Group of Ministers, GoM, and later by the cabinet, the legislation will come up for approval in Parliament. In reply to a question, she said, high quality platinum has been discovered in 150 kilometres belt in Tamil Nadu and adjoining Kerala. <br/><br/>Mrs. Nair said that after initial excavations, Tamil Nadu government has been asked to carry on the process and a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed to this effect. <br/><br/>Mrs. Nair said that the project is likely to be commercially viable as the platinum in this belt is of one of the best grades found in South Africa.