Team Herald

PANJIM: Even though the government is talking about restarting mining activity in the State currently banned by the Supreme Court, essentially whatever is revived will be illegal mining, asserted environmentalist and director of Goa Foundation Dr Claude Alvares.

“You can’t take anything that the Goa government says with a straight face. It’s a very worrisome state of affairs. When you restart mining, the first thing you do is resume illegal mining. What is happening in Pissurlem, Mayem, South Goa, is actually former lease holders, who don’t have stakes in mining anymore, are being given permission by the Director of Mines to transport ores from one place to another under the garb of e-auction,” Alvares said.

Speaking in a Herald TV debate ‘Point-Counter-Point’, the activist said that e-auction was started in 2014 after Supreme Court judgement following a petition filed by Goa Foundation.

“But this (illegal mining) has been going on mysteriously for the last eight years and this will go on for the next 50 years because whenever they want an excuse to transport ore, the authorities will say that it is part of an e-auction process citing Supreme Court judgment. The police will protect the transporters. Whoever may come as Director, Secretary of Minister, this will continue. Unless this stops, we can’t really think in terms of restarting mining,” he said.

In an interesting parallel, Alvares said that while on one side the Excise Department has its officers planted in every liquor factory; it doesn’t have any representative at mining or transportation sites.

“Then they expect that these miners, who have been involved in illegal mining for several years, will do everything legally,” he added.