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PANJIM: In a fresh salvo fired at the government by the green lobby, environmentalist Ramesh Gawas has charged that the government’s process of revalidating licences of ore traders is illegal and should be scrapped since the giving of trading licences itself by State government is ultra virus.
The Mines Department, meanwhile, has maintained that trading of ore was completely legal and that the State government was empowered to make rules under Section 23C of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act).
According to Gawas, the government has no power to make rules to grant licences for trading under a provision in the parent Act (MMDR Act) which only allows for making of rules to prevent illegal mining.
“Section 23C of the MMDR Act empowers State governments to make rules to prevent illegal mining, but does not empower them to grant trading licences,” Gawas said.
True enough, Section 23C of the MMRD Act, allows ‘The State Government… by notification in the Official Gazette, (to) make rules for preventing illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals and for the purposes connected therewith.’
In particular, it says that such rules may provide for all or any of the means such as establishment of check-posts, establishment of weigh-bridges, regulation of mineral being transported, inspection, checking and search of minerals at the place of excavation or storage or during transit; maintenance of registers and forms, or “any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed for the purpose of prevention of illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals.”
“Nowhere has it been mentioned that the State government can use this Section to make rules to register traders,” Gawas said.
Director of Mines and Geology Prasanna Acharya, meanwhile, maintained the legality of the rules and that each State government was empowered to frame such rules.
“Yes, it is definitely legal. Trading ore is a legal activity under the rules. Each State government is empowered by section 23C to frame its own rules,” Acharya said adding that registering of ore traders was a means to prevent illegal mining.
The Goa Prevention of Illegal Mining (transportation and storage) Rules 2004, which gives legal sanctity for registering traders has been worded to sound like a preventive measure, thus justifying its presence in the rules to prevent illegal mining.
“On and from the commencement of these rules, no person shall carry on trading of minerals unless he gets himself registered with the Directorate of Mines for trading minerals under the provisions of these rules,” the very first rule reads.
Gawas also contended that those filling the J Form of the Department of Mines (renewal of lease) have to submit whether the ore they extract will be used for export or for domestic industrial use. “At no point does the J form offer an option to sell the ore to a trader. You either directly export or sell it directly to the industry. The middlemen here are illegal,” Gawas said.
Gawas has now demanded that the rules notified by the government in 2004 be scrapped as it is ultra virus for the State government to pass such rules and that no beneficiation be done outside mining leases as that is legally allowed only within mining leases. He has also sought that all revalidated licences of traders be scrapped.
