TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday appointed four specialists on a six-member expert committee to recommend the annual cap on the quantum of iron ore to be extracted in Goa on the principle of equity to future generations and environment-carrying capacity. It also directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Goa Government to nominate one representative each who is not below the rank of the joint secretary at the Centre.
Those appointed to the committee are Ecologist CR Babu, geologist SC Dhiman, mineralogist BK Mishra and forester S Parmeshwarappa.
The committee is to examine the issue of laying down limits on the production of iron ore in Goa keeping in view the State’s carrying capacity and the demands of intergenerational equity.
The committee has been asked to give its recommendations by February 15, after which the court will review the stay it had slapped on all iron ore mining in the State since October 5 last year on the petition filed by Goa Foundation, citing gross illegalities found by the Justice MB Shah Inquiry Commission in its report.
The Court had last Monday asked all concerned parties to suggest names for appointment on the committee even while allowing e-auction of the already extracted iron ore under the supervision of another three-member monitoring committee.
The three-member committee comprising three experts will verify the quantity of ore extracted by mining companies before the mining ban and presently lying at leases and jetties as stacks (not dumps). The monitoring committee will list the stocks verified lease-wise which will be e-auctioned and the money deposited in a bank account under the control of the monitoring committee, where its disbursement will await the final judgement of the Court regarding the validity of the mining leases challenged in the petition.
The Court’s three member monitoring committee comprised the Chief Secretary (or nominee of the Chief Secretary not below the rank of Joint Secretary); Dr UV Singh, Addl Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Government of Karnataka and Naimuddin Shaikh, retired member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The monitoring committee would complete its work and submit its report to the Court by February 15 too.
On that date, the Court would also like to have on record the reports of the Indian School of Mines commissioned by the MOEF and of the NEERI, recruited by the Goa government.
The State government had pleaded for auction and export of around 11.48 million tonnes of extracted iron ore stuck for the past one year because of the court’s stay order under the supervision of its own monitoring committee.
The State’s monitoring committee included Principal Secretary (Transport) as Chairman; Secretary (Mines), member; Chairman of the Goa Pollution Control Board, member; DIG Police (in charge of SIT), member, an environmentalist (to be appointed by the state government) and the Director of Mines & Geology, as member secretary. The affidavit stated the State Government had already taken a decision on the monitoring committee and it was now placing the said decision of the State Government before the Court. The affidavit proposed that this monitoring committee would take charge of the ore already mined and lying at mine-heads, stockyards, processing plants and jetties.
