TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM/DELHI: The Goa government affidavit on mining filed before the Supreme Court Saturday has defended the policies followed by the previous government on many counts but promised to carry on mining in a regulated and supervised way in future. The case is listed for hearing on Friday.
Pertinent sections that the affidavit defended are rules 37 (on transfer), rule 38 (amalgamation) of the Mineral Concessions Rule 1960 and the Shah Commission of Inquiry indictment of the state mining activities on encroachments and single window system.
In its 172-page reply to the writ petition and another 16-page reply to the interim stay application, the state government also pointed out that two-third of Goa, including its capital Panjim, will fall in the buffer zone if the 10-km area from the boundary of the reserved forests and sanctuary has to be enforced.
State has asked for a buffer zone of two km, with proposal to phase out all non-permitted activities, including mining, within one km and stoppage of all mining operations between one and two km in a phased manner in 10 years. The buffer zones should be site-specific and not general, the affidavit stressed.
The government affidavit sought to justify mining on the basis that it was on since the colonial Portuguese era and that many of the procedures and ways and legalities are tied up to that era.
The case is listed on Friday for hearing before the 3-judge Bench of Justices Aftab Alam, K S Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi, which will be also hearing the same day another 1995 case of T N Godavarman Thirumulpad related to the buffer zone around the protected area that will have direct impact on Goa.
But the affidavit also states that the government is considering ~subject to following due procedure~ all dumps “…shall be taken over by the state for scientific handling and the revenue out of its disposal would accrue to the state.” A tentative assessment of 750 million tonnes has been made in the affidavit.
“It would go a long way in making good the ecological and environmental damage that has been caused in the process of haphazard mining undertaken so far. The state government has urged the court to permit handling and the sale of dumps which is subject matter of storage, transportation and trade falling under the purview of the state administration,” the affidavit filed by the principal secretary (mines) R K Verma says that the sale would be done under the supervision of monitoring committee.
The state government has also taken a decision that those dumps which are situated in revenue and forest lands stand confiscated and would be the Goa government property and would be auctioned by the mines department under the supervision of the high powered committee, it says, adding that the state has decided that such “…mineral dumps in forest areas will be treated as forest produce within the meaning of the Indian Forest Act 1927 as mineral stands included in the definition of the forest produce therein.”
The state government intends to undertake an environmental audit by engaging an expert environmental agency such as NEERI or CRGI or some other national or international body to study various aspects including matters relating and more particularly to mining in the state of Goa and that till such an audit is not complete, it is contemplating “as of today”, to completely ban all fresh excavation of any mineral ore. But it seeks to allow handling of ore stacked at the mines pit head or any dump sites and permit transportation of certain sub grade ore which presently has an international market so that there is no further excavation or fresh production of ore but a proper handling of the existing stacked ore /dumps which are stacked at the mine, pushing for dump handling.
The government has also taken exception to the SC appointed CEC?giving it direction and advisories stating that the state government is a Constitutional Authority and there cannot be dictates by the CEC in the functions assigned to the state government under the Constitution.
The CEC has been appointed by the Apex Court to inquire into illegal mining in the state and has been in existence since 2002 and has looked into various issues all over the country since then.
The state has alleged that the court appointed body has no authority “…to issue direction or advisory to the state government which is elected by popular mandate.”
The state wants the mining ban lifted on the ground that the ban first imposed by the state government on October 3 and later by the Supreme Court has rendered a lakh of people jobless and 3.50 lakh others have been impacted. It points out that drivers of 20,000-25,000 trucks used for carrying the iron ore have become jobless, the cooperative banks have been hit as their loans for trucks have turned bad, all garages, service stations and petrol/diesel pumps have been shut, 375 barges employing some 4000 persons are lying idle and the worst impact has been the drastic jump in the school dropouts in the mining belt according to the government’s affidavit.
