PANJIM, MARCH 23
Leader of the Opposition Manohar Parrikar once again raised the issue of illegal mining in the House today indicating that the State government is not serious enough to put an end to the illegality.
Raising the issue during Question Hour as a supplementary to a question tabled by Shiroda MLA Mahadev Naik, Parrikar pointed out that government is suffering huge revenue loss due to illegal mining even as Chief Minister Digambar Kamat cited various measures initiated by his government to keep a check on illegal mining.
ROYALTY: Parrikar pointed out that there has been lapses in payment of royalties by lessees. The difference in the ore extracted and royalty paid was just half per cent in 2006-07, which rose to 8 per cent in 2007-08 and it further increased to 17 per cent in 2008-09, he said.
Shiroda MLA Naik had sought to know quantities of ore extracted for 2008-09, 2009-10 and amount of royalty paid by the lessees.
Parrikar said the big difference in royalty paid in relation to actual extraction of mineral ore signify that many evade payment of royalty. The value of 17 per cent royalty comes to Rs 1500 crore, he said, suggesting the government to take strict action against defaulters.
MEASURES: Kamat said that the government has set-up a cell to assess payment of royalty and that it has completed assessing 800 cases. They are close to issuing notices to the defaulters. To ensure better and faster compiling of payments made, payments of challans have been restricted to one centre in each of the district. Also, instructions have been issued asking to pay challans by 15th day of every month, Kamat said while narrating measures taken for auditing of royalty paid and determine defaulters.
CASES: Earlier, Mayem MLA Anant Shet had also posed a question about how many cases of illegal mining were detected during last one year.
According to the reply given, two such cases, one in Netravali Village in Sanguem taluka and other at Ambeli village in Sattari were detected.
