Cong blames CM's 2011 political adventurism for mining mess

PANAJI
The Congress on Wednesday blamed Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for his "political adventurism" by hyping the 'illegal mining' bogey in his bid to defame the then Digambar Kamat government and the party with an eye on winning the 2012 assembly elections for the mining industry impasse which has affected thousands of Goans till date.
"We demand that the chief minister apologise to the affected mining dependents, to the Congress party which he defamed with the charge of indulging in a Rs 35,000 crore scam and also to Digambar Kamat who faced the brunt of the misinformation campaign," Goa Pradesh Congress chief Girish Chodankar said.
Chodankar was addressing a press conference at the GPCC headquarters flanked by Kamat, Leader of Opposition, Chandrakant Kavlekar, AICC Goa in-charge Dr Chella Kumar and MLAs Aleixo Reginald Lourenco, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Nilkanth Halarnkar and Clafacio Dias.
Chodankar said, Parrikar at that time inappropriately used a so-called Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report which never saw the light of day to falsely accuse the then Kamat-led government of complicity in a Rs 35,000 crore illegal mining scam.
"He successfully launched this false propaganda and managed to convince people with half-truths and won the 2012 elections," Chodankar said, adding that he was unable to investigate and bring to book a single case subsequently despite taking office and having the support of the Central government.
Chodankar also quoted a letter written in 2016 by Assistant Director of Mines & Geology stating that the 500-odd hectares which Shah Commission Report quoted as illegally encroached by the Goa mining lease holders was actually found to be just 9 hectares following GPS surveying.
Kamat, who claimed he has been the 'worst victim' of the witch hunt to give credence to the false narrative of a mining scam, said even the Shah Commission Report had a disclaimer which said that the figures mentioned in its report are "not final" and needed verification.
"Nobody even read the Shah Commission Report but everyone drew conclusions that a Rs 35,000 crore scam had taken place in Goa," Kamat said, adding that even the Supreme Court had ruled that the report cannot be the basis for prosecuting any individual against whom the Commission had made adverse comments.
Kavlekar claimed that in 2011, Parrikar along with a delegation of then BJP national president Nitin Gadkari and others, had even met then President Pratibha Patil and accused the Kamat government of indulging in a scam.
"They had named Vishwajit Rane, Subhash Shirodkar and others as perpetrators of the scam in the letter to Patil. Now these two politicians are in the BJP fold. So how did they reconcile," Kavlekar asked.
Dr Chella Kumar called the BJP a habitual false propagandist to capture power. He recalled that even at the Centre, the party launched a false campaign by misusing the institution of CAG to project a Rs 1.76 lakh crore scam in the 2G spectrum sale matter.
"Similarly in Goa, the same modus operandi was adopted in the mining matter in 2011-12. Even cabinet minister Nilesh Cabral has openly admitted that the illegal mining scam bogey was created for the purpose of winning the 2012 assembly elections and Parrikar is yet to deny his minister's claim," Dr Chella Kumar added.