TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The State government’s attempt to lift the ban on mining in the state might have to wait, as the Directorate of Mines and Geology has decided not to go ahead with the signing of second lease renewals with mining firms, till Supreme Court’s fast-track hearing in the matter conclude.
Supreme Court, which has currently halted mining activities in the State, has begun regular hearings of the mining case. The hearing, which started on September 17, will take place thrice a week.
Mining department which had initiated the process for lifting mining ban on case to case basis following Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar announcement last month, has now decided to halt the entire exercise in the wake of hearing of the Goa Mining Case in the apex court. The withdrawal of the suspension order does not mean that mining activity in those leases could resume.
In the first phase, around 26 leases were cleared for signing second renewal of leases, mostly belonging to major mining companies such as Sesa Goa, Chowgules, Salgaoncars and others.
Assistant director Mines Parag Nagarcekar said that department has decided not to sign any more leases till the hearing in the Supreme Court concludes. “Currently we are focusing on the hearing. The process to sign the lease renewal will take place only after that,” he said. State government on September 10, 2012 had suspended mining operation following Justice M B Shah Commission report that exposed Rs 35,000 crore scam in the mining sector.
All these 26 mining leases are ‘outside the forest area’ and have already paid stamp duty towards renewal of the leases for 20 years. Government has collected around Rs 324 crore in the form of stamp duty.
The leases of around 337 mines expired in 2007 and the lease holder had applied for a second renewal. However the renewal was not done by the then government and hence they operated under the deemed renewal provision.
