7 years later, govt refuses to recover Goa’s looted wealth

Team Herald

MARGAO: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s justification for calling the Shah Committee report flawed was that the survey was done using hand held GPS devices and that these devices have an error margin of 300-500 meters. Parrikar claims that the government has used latest technology, and based on this the actual area is not 578 hectares as reported by Shah Commission but a mere 10 hectares.

Interestingly, such discrepancies did not arise in other States which were under investigation by the Shah Commission. Also, the company that did the survey is Turbosketch from Fatorda. This company had also provided similar technical assistance while preparing the Regional Plan 2021, land use plans and has been involved in many other government contracts.

Parrikar also suggested that the recovery for illegal mining is limited to the royalty payable to the government. However, according to the Mines and Minerals Act 1957, the entire price of the ore along with the tax and royalty has to be recovered.

Why has Parrikar filed only two cases of the 40 illegal mining activities pointed out in PAC report? asks Claude

Responding to Parrikar’s claims that Shah commission had wrongly measured the lease areas, Goa Foundation Director Dr Claude Alvares told Herald that the State government had given enough time to illegal mining operators to cover their tracks “You can cover up an illegal excavation very fast using JCBs,” he said.

In a scatting attack against the CM’s claims, Alvares said, “Forget about the Rs 35,000 crore of the Shah Commission, why is not worrying about his own PAC report which said the loss was Rs 3500 crore? What has he done about that? What has he done about the recovery of 1500 crore which he told the Supreme Court that it has not been collected by him? What has he done about illegal mining between 2007 and 2011 which comes to around Rs 65,000 crore?”

Alvares also said the mining between 2007 and 2011 was declared illegal which means that there was no valid lease during the period. “The MMDR Act says that without a valid lease if you carry out mining operations, that you are due for 100% recovery and not just the royalty which comes to Rs 65,000 crore,” he said.

He raised doubts over the two cases filed so far against persons close to former CM Digambar Kamat, hinting at political witch-hunting. “Parrikar is in charge from 2012. Six years have gone by but only two cases have been filed against two mining companies when he had exposed 40 cases in the PAC report. Why did he selectively target just two leases? he asked.

It may be recalled that Parrikar was the chairman of the committee back in 2011 when he had attempted to table the PAC report which pegged the illegal mining outside the lease areas as Rs 3500 crores. Since then, only Rs 300 crore has been recovered till date.

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