PANJIM: Goa Foundation (GF), the petitioner in the Supreme Court in the iron ore illegal mining case, has welcomed any kind of inquiry into its funding. The foundation also questioned the government’s failure to recover Rs 35,000 crore that has been looted from the State exchequer by mining companies.
“Government is free to conduct an inquiry through Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or special investigating team (SIT) into our funding. We welcome any such inquiry,” GF Director Dr Claude Alvares told Herald.
Alvares was reacting to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s announcement of conducting an inquiry into GF’s foreign funding, following a demand from the BJP State unit and his legislative colleagues.
“GF has no foreign money coming in. The money of GF in the bank can be audited within 15 minutes, those are the only funds we have with us,” Alvares said.
GF questioned the State government’s delay in conducting an inquiry into the mining mess and recovery of Rs 35,000 crore loss. “It’s been three years and the State has failed to recover the looted money. I would question the delay in initiating action against the mining firms involved in the loot,” Alvares said.
BJP MLAs from the mining belt have raised suspicions over the orgnisations’ funding. This came following the litigations filed by the foundation before the Apex Court and National Green Tribunal (NGT).
GF had in 2012 approached the Supreme Court demanding that the recommendations of Justice M B Shah Commission inquiry report that had pegged mining loss at Rs 35,000 crore be implemented. Based on the petition, the Apex Court had in October 2012 imposed a ban on mining activities, which was lifted only in April 2014.
The Foundation has again approached the Supreme Court challenging lease renewals of 88 mining leases terming the government act as illegal.
