PANJIM: In a bid to analyze the returns from illegal mining to the State, which comes in the form of penalties and other action against the violators, the Union Mines Ministry has made external audit of mines mandatory through Central government empanelled agencies.
This direction has come following a report by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) that highlighted major discrepancies and mismatch in the quarterly returns of the mines.
The decision was taken during a recently-held meeting of the Coordination-cum-Empowered Committee (CCEC) on Mineral Development and Regulation in New Delhi. The meeting with all States was called to discuss the issues following the new mining ordinance and sharing of best practices for mineral development and regulation in the country between the States and the Centre.
After IBM castigated State governments, including Goa, for a mismatch in the quarterly returns of the mines on illegal mining and failure to follow up the cases of illegal mining with various investigating agencies, the Union Ministry made external audit of mines mandatory in addition to statutory inspection by State agencies and IBM.
At the last CCEC meeting, IBM was asked to study and analyze the illegal mining returns of the States and determine the approach/modalities adopted by State governments in imposing fines, filing of FIRs, launching court cases, etc.
Sources said that in the case of Goa, IBM observed that there was a mismatch between the numbers of illegal mining cases filed before the various investigating agencies, penalties or fines imposed, separate break up of illegal mining cases detected, etc.
The State has already handed over the illegal mining case to the Special Investigating Team (SIT) as well as the Lokayukta. While the Lokayukta is non-functional at present, SIT has filed FIRs in few cases.
The State has also appointed a panel of 17 CAs to probe the financial transactions of the mining firms, to encounter the exact loss to the State exchequer due to illegal mining. The CAs are going in detail about the iron ore extracted and exported between 2005 to 2012.
