Time For Cooler Heads To Prevail
A detailed letter has been written to the State chief secretary by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee examining illegal mining in Goa asking the Manohar Parrikar government to keep in abeyance its recent NOC for export of purported Maharashtra ore through Goa has elicited a combative retort from the Chief Minister. Parrikar said on Saturday obviously apropos of the CEC direction: “Only judiciary has the powers to instruct me.” Parrikar, without either naming the CEC or elaborating on the matter, added: “There is no judiciary order. Only they can instruct me.”
That the Chief Minister is upping the ante and drawing a distinction ~ whether specious as his critics allege or valid as he obviously believes ~ between Supreme Court directions and the CEC communiqué is clear. His administration is also obviously not-too-happy with the implication of the CEC order that the State’s due diligence procedures in granting the NOC are open to review to ensure they are “foolproof”. The State Mines Department had issued an NOC to trading company Prime Minerals to export ore brought to Goa ostensibly from Maharashtra earlier this month and the movement of the ore had begun some days back via Panjim port, after a long lull following the mining ban imposed by the Supreme Court in a case filed by Goa Foundation following the disclosures of the Shah Commission report.
The CEC communiqué has now asked for the halt of all such ore movement that began over the past few days, pending foolproof measures to ascertain where the ore was coming from. In a categorical communiqué it said, “You are hereby advised that the permission(s) granted for export of Maharashtra origin iron ore is/are kept in abeyance till the matter is thoroughly examined and it is ensured that in the garb of export of Maharashtra origin iron ore, the Goa origin iron ore is not exported in violation of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”
Indicating that it was closely monitoring the situation and had taken the recent events seriously, the CEC has sought many details from the State government, including the basis on which permissions were given, which officials cleared it and who had physically verified that the ore had come from the Maharashtra mine. Goa was also asked to furnish date-wise details of the iron ore brought from the Reddi Iron Ore Mines, and other ore of Maharashtra origin brought in for export in the past two years, along with details of quantity exported and the balance material. It has also written to the Maharashtra chief secretary asking for similar details. The CEC’s letter, which has been handed over to the Supreme Court, will come up with an application that the petitioners will be filing in the matter.
Given the above, it would perhaps be prudent of the Parrikar regime to look at the matter coolly and without feeling ~ rightly or wrongly ~ it is being singled out. It may well turn out that the CEC would be satisfied that all procedures were diligently followed by the State government in granting the NOC, in which case the stand of the Parrikar regime would be validated. On the other hand, if it is found that this was not the case, the Chief Minister, given his stated stand against any illegality in the mining sector and professed zero tolerance for corruption and crony capitalism, would surely welcome the opportunity to crack down on those who may have misled and those who may have been willing to be misled. Either way, that would be the mature, dare we say wise, course of action to follow. Accusing the CEC of bias and/or ascribing political motives to it does seem a bit far-fetched.
Given the rampant illegal mining in Goa over the past years and the audacity with which the scam operated with the complicity of government officials, the CEC is to most neutral observers well within its rights to want to check, cross-check and double-check, as it were. It was clear that the resumption of ore movement, though claimed to be of Maharashtra origin, would attract the CEC’s attention. How this fresh confrontation with the CEC plays out and whether this sort of confrontation will help Goa is anybody’s guess.
