MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has observed that if the unauthorised quarrying or mining continues unabated and if the State’s mineral wealth continued to be looted, primarily because of inaction on the part of the officials of the Directorate of Mines and Geology, Revenue and the Police, it would be forced to consider adopting the course which was adopted in the context of major minerals.
The division bench comprising justices Mahesh Sonak and Valmiki Menezes have said it would be in the public interest for the State to adopt some serious measures to stop the loot of mineral wealth as soon as possible.
The court said that it is difficult to accept that large-scale unauthorised quarrying can take place without the same being noticed by the officials of the Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG), the police authorities and the revenue authorities.
"Such quarrying involves using heavy earth machinery and transporting the quarried material, i.e., laterite stones, etc. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that such large-scale activities involving labour, heavy earth machinery and several trucks can occur without the same being noticed by DMG, the police authorities and the revenue authorities," the court said, while hearing two writ petitions filed by Budho Gaonkar and Govind Gaonkar.
"We are forced to wonder whether such large-scale unauthorised quarrying or mining is possible only because the officials of the DMG, police, and revenue department themselves are directly or indirectly involved in such activities. Filing complaints against the officials responsible with the Police may also be quite futile because it is rather difficult to believe that such large-scale unauthorised quarrying/mining operations can go on without the police noticing them. Even the Police have not bothered to take any action on the specious plea that no complaints were filed before them," the Court has observed.
The Court found that the DMG had only recovered Rs 60 lakh as against the total recoverable amount of over Rs 90 crore. The Court has asked the DMG to file a status report of the amounts recovered.
The court noted that there were instances of unauthorised quarrying at 26 locations all over Goa and the fines imposed by the DMG are in the range of about nine crore or thereabouts. "This means that material valued at about nine crore or thereabouts has been extracted and disposed of unauthorisedly. Still, hardly Rs 60 lakh is recovered. If we go by past experience, no steps will be taken to recover most of this amount. Even the fate of the prosecution fairs no better because there is no will to check such large-scale quarrying or mining operations in the State of Goa," the court observed.
The court has said that the officials of the DMG and the revenue authorities cannot be derelict in the discharge of their duties and claim that they will act as and when some complaint is received from some public-spirited citizen and not otherwise. "If this continues, we will have to consider whether the Chief Secretary of the State of Goa should be called upon to institute a high-level inquiry into the theft of Goa’s mineral wealth in such a clandestine manner," the court said.
"If this unauthorised quarrying or mining continues unabated, and if the State’s mineral wealth continues to be looted, primarily because of inaction on the part of the officials of the DMG, revenue and the police, this Court would be forced to consider adopting the course which was adopted in the context of major minerals," the court said and posted the matter for next hearing on July 8.
