It is a travesty of justice that a supposedly mature government has responded to the Supreme Court Judgment of April 2014 which declared that all mining activity from 2007 onwards was illegal and directed a proper roadmap, in such an irresponsible manner. The most vocal critic against the judiciary interfering with the executive process of carrying out mining, Manohar Parrikar had wanted the state to be left alone to make decisions and not the courts. In eighteen months since that Supreme Court judgment, the Goa government has given enough reason for the Judiciary to get back at it and tell the government why mining activity has to be controlled by the courts since the department of Mines, (which is actually a department for miners) is incapable of doing so.
The government’s absolutely incorrect decision of renewing the 88-odd mining leases, without challenging the decision of the High Court granting those renewals, has now been challenged by Goa Foundation. At the time of renewals, didn’t the Mines Department, its Secretary and yes, the Chief Minister to stop to think that by affecting the renewals, they were allowing Claude Alvares and the Goa Foundation to come back at them for the right reasons.
The Goa government has actually mocked the Supreme Court Judgment. Para 57 of the judgment stated “It was the responsibility of the Government of Goa, Department of Mines, to enforce the provisions of the MMDR Act, the MC Rules and the MCD Rules, but as we have already noticed, this responsibility was not properly discharged. We hope that in future, it will enforce the provisions of the MMDR Act, MCR rules and the Goa (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Storage and Transportation of Minerals) Rules, 2013”.
The state government has not just renewed leases when the directive was to issue fresh leases. It has also violated the MMDR Act by renewing most of them without the mandatory permission from the Indian Bureau of Mines. The renewals were done without any application of mind or a mischievous application of mind. The Goa government was aware that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) constituted an expert appraisal committee on Environment Clearances (EC), While its report was given to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover, the Goa government could have waited till its report was out. This committee has recommended the revocation of ECs of 43 iron ore mining leases, of the 88 renewed by the State Government. Therefore those renewals are under a huge cloud since the clearance on the basis of which mining activity can commence has been found faulty in so many cases.
The Vishwanath Anand Expert Appraisal Committee also recommended that the ECs of 40 leases be kept in abeyance till clearance from the National Board of Wildlife (NBW)and proposed complete while it had proposed complete EC abeyance in case of five leases. Thus 85 of the 88 renewed leases, according to the Supreme Court appointed Expert committee should either be revoked or suspended. If the Apex court accepts this, then what will the government go back to the lease holders and the mining affected people with?
What this government has therefore done is hurriedly accept the huge fees for mining renewals by selling the dream of mining resumption, while preparing to pin the blame squarely on Goa Foundation and the Supreme Court for preventing mining resumption.
The Supreme Court had actually given the Goa government an opportunity to rectify its mistakes. It has done nothing of the sort. Instead, its inaction has given an opportunity for the Goa Foundation to point out these inactions in court.
The biggest injustice that the Government of Goa done to the people of the mining areas, is that that by not rectifying and streamlining mining in a manner in which the Supreme Court had directed, it has left the chances of restarting mining to yet another court dictated process. It played to the both the galleries – the people and the mining barons, and will end up pleasing neither.
