Centre, CEC, private firms also asked to file replies
TEAM HERALD
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
NEW DELHI/PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, Goa Government, private iron ore firms and the Centrally Empowered Committee, on a petition filed by the Goa Foundation against the State government, alleging that it had circumvented the Apex Court’s interim stay on all mining activities, of October 5, by allowing export of ore through a Goa port.
Asking all parties to file replies, the Forest Bench of SC headed by Justice Aftab Alam listed the matter for February 15. The other two judges on the Bench were Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, secured the notices after he argued that there is no evidence that the ore allowed to be exported by the Goa government had originated from Maharashtra and even if this was so, the interim stay order of October 5 is a blanket order.
“In any event, the State of Goa was duty bound to approach the Court for appropriate order to allow transportation and export. The State of Goa, however, seems to have no concerns of the cognizance of illegality taken by this Hon’ble Court,” the petition argued.
It also expressed concern over Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement on January 14 that all the mineral ore excavated outside the State would be allowed to be routed through Goa for its export.
“It is apparent that the State is going to permit more such transportation and export of ore allegedly extracted from outside the State, thus making a complete mockery of the Supreme Court’s interim stay,” Bhushan argued.
The State government position is that the Supreme Court stay does not apply to transportation and export of ore from mines outside the State, but it applies only to ore mined in Goa.
A trading company Prime Minerals, earlier this month, was granted NOC by the Directorate of Mines and Geology for export of 72,000 metric tones of ore, which it claimed had been brought to Goa from Maharashtra. The export of the ore had begun from Panjim port, a couple of days ago. The CEC had “advised” the government to keep in abeyance the NOC granted for export.
Reacting to the Court order, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told HERALD, “We were expecting a similar order. Court has not put any stay on export (of ore). Instead it has sought our say in the matter, which means the Apex Court knows that the act of granting NOC was not in violation of its order.”
The Chief Minister said that the order has come in State government’s favour as the Court finds no seriousness in the plea and hence has not issued a stay on export. Parrikar said that the State government will present its say on the matter, clarifying that there is no violation of the Apex court order.
“We will inform the Court that the act of granting NOC was basically to provide business to truckers and barge owners, who are suffering badly due to mining ban for last three months,” he added.
Parrikar said that the government is working on several measures to provide relief to mining dependent and once again reiterated that allowing export of non-Goan origin ore is one such measure.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Geology and Mines has not issued any stop order on the export and the trading company has exported around 60,000 metric tones of ore from the Panjim port.
“CEC’s letter is put up to the government for a decision. Today there is no interim relief granted in the IA filed by Goa Foundation for stoppage of exports from Goa,” Mines director, Prassana Acharya told media.
“The government has been asked to file an affidavit in a week’s time,” Acharya said. The bulk carrier is to leave Tuesday with the ore on board. Mines Department official confirmed that though there has been no stop order, the trading company has already stopped loading the ore since Sunday.
