TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: A day after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) revoked the suspension of Environment Clearances (ECs) of 72 mining leases, Justice (retd) M B Shah has questioned whether the authenticity of the ECs was ‘re-examined’ by the Ministry, as recommended by his Commission.
The Shah Commission had exposed the widespread violation of environmental parameters while granting mining leases to companies, especially in eco-sensitive areas, causing serious damage to the environment.
“I would not like to comment in detail about this act of the Ministry without understanding and under what circumstances the ECs suspension was revoked. But, I would be interested to know whether the factual content of ECs was re-looked at, as per our recommendations,” inquiry Commission chairman Justice Shah told Herald.
“Since I am currently busy with another assignment, I would like the aggrieved persons, especially the petitioner (Goa Foundation) to look into this matter and raise it before the Supreme Court,” Shah added. “MoEF will have to answer to Supreme Court about their decision,” he said.
When contacted Commission member Dr U V Singh also said that the Commission would welcome the decision of MoEF, provided it has re-looked into the ECs and has undertaken all the remedial measures as recommended by the Commission. “There were a lot of drawbacks in the ECs,” he observed.
The Shah Commission that exposed the Rs 35,000 crore mining scam in Goa, was the basis for the suspension of ECs of 139 mining leases, which brought the mining operations to a grinding halt. As per the Commission report, ECs were granted to 165 mining leases by MoEF.
The Commission had in its first report castigated the MoEF for granting ECs, especially to those mining leases located in eco-sensitive areas, within 10-kms of the wildlife sanctuaries and without proper assessment since most were based on false information, on the natural resources. The Commission had even demanded stringent action against MoEF officials for such illegalities.
“The spirit of Environmental Clearances system has been substantially wounded, and resulted into amassing of wealth by certain individuals/companies at the cost of environmental sustainability and ecosystem. The impact is so high that the environment and ecosystem have been made vulnerable,” the Commission had said in its report.
