PANAJI: Quoting the government figures as regards the difference between the mining production and the mining exports from the state having gone up from ½ per cent to 8 per cent to 17 per cent during last three years, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday

said that presently this difference is as much as 22 per cent, and the government should maintain vigilance on mining exports rather than concentrating on the assessment and verification of mining leases, if it genuinely desires to curb illegal mining in the state.
Responding to the allegations of Mr Parrikar, the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat, during the Question Hour informed the House that the government is working on some mechanism by which before the actual mineral export from the state, the government would collect royalty from the exporters. “We are thinking on putting up some barricades and royalty collection centres at the export point,” he added.
The Chief Minister also stated that a special team set up at the department of mining has already completed assessment/ verification of around 800 cases of mining, and is on the verge of issuing notices to illegal mining activities. He also said that from November 2008, the government has stopped the facility wherein the mining exporters were able to pay challans at various places around the state, and has restricted accepting of mining receipts to only two state treasuries, one in each district.
The Leader of the Opposition pointed out that last year, altogether 51 exporters from Goa were involved in exporting of mineral from the state, and the matter of illegal mining has become serious as the amount of royalty has gone up from Rs 50 per tonne to Rs 150 per tonne. “The government has to focus on these 51 exporters and audit their export figures to trace illegal mining in the state,” Mr Parrikar suggested, informing that last year, the difference between the mining production and the mining exports from the state was 53 lakh tonnes, which is 17 per cent of the total mining production in the state.
Meanwhile, through another related question, the Leader of the Opposition pointed out that there have been cases wherein owners of some land, on the pretext of digging ponds, have excavated large amounts of mineral and exported the same.
Acknowledging the fact, the Chief Minister, in a written reply mentioned that illegal mining activities taken up under the pretext of land development at Neturlim village in Sanguem taluka were detected in November 2009, while illegal mining activities carried out under the pretext of construction of water pond were identified at Ambeli village in Sattari taluka, in February 2010.
“After tracing these activities, the high-powered monitoring committee visited the site and found the machinery being moved away,” the Chief Minister informed the House, stating that the committee lodged complaints with the police, the department of forests, Goa State Pollution Control Board and some other government agencies. “The department of forests immediately suspended a range forest officer and a forest guard for allowing the felling of trees while the GSPCB is contemplating action against owner of the land at Ambeli, under Air and Water Act,” he said, adding that the police have taken two machines in their possession and are further moving for the cancellation of the anticipatory bail as sought by the owner of the land.
The Leader of the Opposition alleged that a local PI, Shivram Vaingankar has interest in the mining sub-contract and would not be of any use to curb illegal mining activities in the area. Mr Parrikar also pointed out that under the pretext of digging the pond, the owner of the land has dug out much more volume of mineral than 87,500 cubic metres, as identified by the government. “A total of 14 sub-contractors were involved in the digging process with 150 trucks working in three shifts during the day and each of them completing 30 trips for 30 days a month,” he pointed out, noting that the price of the mineral dug from the place is Rs 30 crore in the international market, and government has lost a royalty revenue of Rs 3 crore on the same.
The Chief Minister informed the House that he has already interacted with the director of Panchayats, who has been asked to ensure that before any NOCs are issued by the village panchayats for developmental works in the villages, clearance needs to be taken from the high-powered monitoring committee. “The government has activated all its departments to go to the root cause of illegal mining in the state,” he assured, adding that the issue would be handled with due seriousness in the future.