PANJIM: The petitioner Goa Foundation has urged the High Court of Bombay at Goa to order an inquiry into the vast discrepancies reported in the production figures produced by the Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) and the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM).
The petitioner pointed out that while as per DMG the total production from 2015 to March 15, 2018 was around 37 million tonnes, IBM claims that it was only 16 million tonnes.
As per DMG, the total production for the year 2015-16 was 7.25 million tonnes, while as per IBM it was 1.74 million tonnes. For the year 2016-17, the DMG data shows it was 20 million tonnes, while IBM figures stood at 8.90 million tonnes.
Similar for the last financial year till March 15, 2018 the production figures placed on record by DMG are 10.58 million tons while as per IBM till January 2018 It was 5.44 million tons.
The petitioner said that the DMG has no proper real-time monitoring of the production from the mining leases. “Under such situation, there is every possibility of manipulation of data by the department,” GF said.
Whereas as far as IBM is concerned, which is the final authority to monitor the production, there could be no column for any errors or wrong data, petitioner said.
In its submission to the allegation, the State Government has stood with its figures by stating that it has not “understated the data and has no idea from where IBM has reached to these figures”.
The petitioner has also urged Court for specific directions to the State government to undertake safety measures at the mining sites ahead of onset of monsoon.
The petitioner claims that it is the duty of the State government and not leaseholders to carry out safety measures.
