TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Mining will begin within “two to three months”, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Friday but this would be provided the miners get NOCs and other permissions from the Centre and other statutory bodies. Parsekar was addressing the media after his first cabinet meeting on Friday. Mining activities had been banned in Goa by the Supreme Court for more than 18 months, before the ban was lifted in April this year.
Parsekar also said that they would renew another three mining leases taking the total leases renewed to 16 mines. “Mining will start in Goa after two to three months,” Parsekar said replying to media questions. He, however, was quick to reiterate that the onus was on miners to get NOCs and other permissions that are to be obtained from the Centre and other statutory bodies.
The BJP-led government has renewed more than a dozen mining leases recently. However, their renewal has been challenged in the courts.
Mining activities were banned after the Justice M B Shah Commission, which investigated illegal mining operations in the state, indicted the state administration, sections of the central government and mining firms, alleging that they were either a part of the scam, or were lax in supervision and thus allowed illegal mining in the state. The Shah report had pegged the notional loss due to illegal mining at around Rs 35,000 crore.
The government’s renewal of leases of companies accused of indulging in illegal mining, has now been challenged in the Supreme Court by an NGO, whose petition had led to the Supreme Court ban on the mining operations in 2012.
