TEAM HERALD
PANJIM/VASCO/ CURCHOREM: The Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee accompanied by top local Mines Department officials visited the Mormugao Port Trust — the main port through which ore is being exported out of Goa — and mines in Sanvordem, Capxem jetty and Codli, officials said.
The committee inspected the stacked ore and checked the grade, shape and quantity of the ore piled up at the Mormugao port. It also visited MECO, Salgaonkar, Timblo, Fomento and other jetties and verified the ore lying at the jetties. In the evening the committee visited Sesa Goa mine at Codli and inspected the ore stacked at the mine.
MPT Chairman P Mara Pandiyan said that that the monitoring panel officials visited the port and took the first hand assessment of the ore piled up at the berth. He said that the exercise was conducted to verify the stacked ore at the port and at various jetties.
The three member Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee comprising U V Singh and Naimuddin Shaikh arrived in the state on Saturday and were joined by Principal Secretary of Goa government Parimal Rai, the mines director and deputy directors for the meeting yesterday and inspections today. The committee was accompanied by Director of Mines Prasanna Acharya, Assistant Director Prag Nagarsekar, Head Surveyor Snehal Sangelkar, Surveyor Officer Jayant Kamat, technical assistant Sudhir Manerkar and other officers.
At the Sesa Goa mine at Codli the committee held a discussion with the company’s business manager Joseph Coelho, and Planning General Manager Ulhas Nagvekar.
Company officials informed the committee that they have about 1.5 million metric tons ore lying at Codli mine. However, sources said that according to the committee, they would verify the quantity and quality of the ore and then fixed the bidding rate and will not depend on the information provided by the company.
According to the Mines Department around 8 lakh tons of iron ore is lying at jetties, plots and leased areas in the Sanvordem mining belt and 2 lakh tons of iron ore is lying at the MPT.
The whole process of monitoring which requires a mathematical measurement, has a cutoff date i.e. December 15, 2014 given by the Supreme Court.
The government had recently issued orders to seize 1.22 million tons of ore, officials said. The ore was said to be unclaimed and not declared in the returns of any of the monthly statements of mining companies. During the October 31 hearing in the Supreme Court on illegal mining, the attorney general had informed the court that there were 11.56 million tons of ore lying around Goa.
The next affidavit told the court that the amount had gone up to 15.46 million tonnes. And 1.22 million tonnes of ore had been found without disclosure of the same in monthly or annual returns, therefore it was completely illegal. Another 2.68 million tonnes was also found at different places and it was not reflected in the returns for being sold to traders.
The Supreme Court had directed that “…the inventory of the excavated mineral ores lying in different mines/stockyards/jetties/ports in Goa, made by the Department of Mines and Geology will first be verified and thereafter the whole of the inventorised mineral ores will be sold by e-auction and the sale proceeds (less taxes and royalty) will be retained in separate fixed deposits (lease-wise) by the state of Goa till the court delivers the judgment in these matters on the legality of the leases from which the mineral ores were extracted.”
