NEW DELHI: A green body on Monday said the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) rules notified by Goa Directorate of Mines recently will not only fall “short” of realising its objectives but can also be “counterproductive”.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said the rules which were notified following provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, as amended in 2015 was brought out without any public consultation and kept in public domain for exactly four days before being finalised.
It said Goa's DMF Rules 2016 do not follow central guidelines and will not meet DMF objectives.
“The Rules will not only fall short of realising the objectives with which DMF has been instituted, but can also be counterproductive. Several provisions remain in contravention of the schemes and guidelines put forth by the Central Government,”said CSE Deputy Director General, Chandra Bhushan.
The Goa government has recently notified the District Mineral Foundation Rules 2016 which make it mandatory for mine owners to pay one-third of their royalty payment for developing areas in the mining belt.
CSE said the Goa DMF Rules are chiefly focused on the ''utilisation'' of DMF funds, pushing many crucial issues to the backseat. With such pre-occupation with fund utilisation, it has even missed out on providing a broad objective within which DMF should function in the state, Bhushan said.
“The Rules lack a people's focus, create scope for fund misuse and show lackadaisical treatment of this important institution,” he said.
Noting that a major “frustration” with the Goa DMF Rules is the stated functions (Rule 4), CSE said it includes a number of things for which DMF money should not be used like functions such as “restoring the ecology damaged by mining” in affected areas or “installing pollution control devices, sewage treatment plants”.
CSE said the DMF money should not be used for any of these, it pointed out that putting in place pollution control measures, restoring ecology and others were responsibilities of the company or individuals undertaking mining activities.
“Using DMF money for such purposes will actually help the companies externalise the environmental costs of mining, which communities will be required to absorb by reduction of their share from DMF,” CSE said.
