No more rejection of mining plans applications by RCM

PANJIM, JULY 24
Henceforth, Regional Controller for Mines (RCM) will not able to reject applications seeking mining plans in respect of mining leases.
Thanks  to   decision  of  the Central Information Commission (CIC) of  June 7,   information on mining plans for mining leases operating in Goa approved by the RCM will now be freely available to the public.
Earlier , the RCM routinely rejected applications for mining plans in respect of individual mining leases on the grounds that the commercial interest of the lessees might be compromised if information in these plans reached rival party.
Thus several applications for copies of mining plans in the State had been rejected by the RCM  on the grounds that these could not be disclosed under Sections 11 (1), 8 (1) (d) and 8(1) (j) of the RTI Act.   As a result, several appeals came to be filed before the CIC against such orders.
On February 5, this year, the CIC sought assistance from the Ministry of Mines to settle the matter. The necessary clarifications were provided to the Information Commission by the Ministry of Mines in March 2010.  The Ministry of Mines held that certain parts of the mining plan of any mining lease could be disclosed by Public Information Officers under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
It held the applicant can be given information pertaining to location, and accessibility of the mine as given by the mine operator in chapter 1 and chapter 2 of the mining plan. Also, information about mine drainage, mineral rejects and disposal of wastes and other information provided in Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 of part A of the mining plan and the environment management plan provided in Chapter 11 of Part B of the mining plan, can be given to the applicant.
The Ministry of Mines  has been advised by the Information Commissioner to have all its public authorities put up the various parts of the mining plans that can  be disclosed,  on their respective websites so that citizens do not have to file repeated RTI queries in the matter.   It has been granted time of two months to carry out this decision.
The Goa Foundation (GF), an NGO keeping a watch on illegal mining has recommended that all those who filed applications under RTI for
information about mining plans should now file fresh applications for the information permitted by the CIC.
The information that can be disclosed would cover most information about the mine, its approved dump management plan and environment management plan.
The applicant should also request for the relevant maps which are annexed to these chapters and GF is willing to assist any person in this process, appealed Dr Claude Alvares, Director, GF.