Most Shah panel work over, Centre tells SC

TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday rejected the NGOs' plea for revival of the Justice MB Shah Commission to probe into the illegal mining of iron and manganese ore since it is already wound up last month on completing most of its work. Only State with substantial mines left out is Chhattisgarh which does not require probe since 98 per cent of iron ore mining constituting 14.35 per cent of the country's production is done by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

In a 14-page affidavit, the Ministry of Mines through its under secretary Ajay Kadian urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the PIL filed by three NGOs, including the Goa Foundation which secured stay on all mining activities based on the Shah Commission's report last year. 

The case is listed for hearing on Monday before the three-member Green Bench of the Apex Court headed by Justice AK Patnaik. Two other NGOs in the case are: Samaj Parivartana Samudaya (SPS) of Karnataka and Development Initiative for Sustainable Human Advancement (Disha) of Chhattisgarh.

Even without referring to the allegation that the Commission was shut down since it was exposing the nexus of politicians and bureaucrats with the mine owners, the affidavit says the government gave not one but two extensions to it beyond its initial tenure of 18 months, first for one year and finally for another three months up to October 16, totaling 33 months of the probe. 

It points out that 70.42 per cent of iron ore production is done in Goa, Odisha and Karnataka which have been already probed by the Commission, 14.35 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 10.66 per cent in Jharkhand and 4.57 per cent in other States.

"Since 98 per cent iron ore mining in Chhattisgarh is done by PSUs, the only State that was left out wherein private sector mining for iron ore is undertaken was the 

state of Jharkhand. Therefore, the Commission was given a 3-month extension to complete its work," the affidavit said.

It points out that the Commission has already submitted four volumes of the report on Jharkhand on October 14, two days before completion of its extended tenure, as also one volume report on Goa and three volumes of the second report on Odisha, in addition to five volumes on Goa submitted on July 1. "These reports are being examined in the ministry for taking appropriate action."

The affidavit further says that "necessary action has already been taken or being taken by the Ministry of Mines" in the Commission's interim report based on preliminary inquiry in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, etc, spelling out "the broad contours of the violations, illegalities like statutory violations related to renewals, excess production, amalgamation, encroachment and violation of other statutory provisions relating to environment, forest, wildlife, air, water, pollution, etc."

It says the Commission was basically constituted under the Commissions of Inquiry Act in November 2010 to inquire into the large-scale illegal mining of iron ore and manganese ore in the country and determine the nature and extent of illegal or unauthorised mining, trade, transportation and export and identify the guilty persons, firms, companies and others and probe the lapse of the regulatory and monitoring system.

The affidavit also points out that the Commission had also filed part I and II of its Goa report on March 15 last year and Part III on April 25 last year which were placed in Parliament along with the Action Taken Report (ATR) on September 7, 2012 as also its first interim report on July 14, 2011 which was placed in Parliament along with ATR on December 20, 2011.