PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Wednesday refused to vacate its interim stay against the transportation of ore from a Pissurlem mine stating instead that they would await a detailed reply from the mining company Vedanta before considering whether to vacate the stay.
Sesa Resources (a subsidiary of Vedanta) filed an affidavit before the High Court informing it that it had purchased 2.95 lakh tonnes of mineral ore from the Pissurlem mine of Damodar Mangalji Co at an e-auction held on January 19, 2022, of which it had already transported the 1.8 lakh tonnes.
“According to us, an affidavit from Respondent No 7 (Sesa Resources) is necessary. Therefore, we direct Respondent No 7 to file an affidavit within two weeks from today (Wednesday). We post the matter for further consideration on June 8, 2022. The interim order granted by us to operate till the next date,” the High Court bench of Justices Justice M S Sonak and R N Laddha said.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Goa Foundation, an environmental NGO, challenging the e-auction and sale of the 3 lakh tonnes of ore on the grounds that the mining lease had never been operated and that the ore had been illegally imported from other nearby leases to defeat environment and mining laws.
The NGO alleged that the ore was auctioned at a ‘knocked down’ base price of Rs 350 per tonne since the grade of the ore was not ascertained before the auction, when in fact it should have fetched a price of at least Rs 1,360 per tonne were the government to declare the grade before the auction.
The NGO also alleged that the transportation of the ore didn’t have the necessary monitoring by the Goa State Pollution Control Board and hence was ‘uncontrolled’ ore transport detrimental to the people living alongside the routes of the mining trucks which had led to protests against the transportation.
The NGO has alleged a ‘major scandal’ in the auctioning of ore in the case of the Pissurlem mining dump.
“A dump of 3,00,000 metric tonnes has been e-auctioned for Rs 10 crore when its market value is Rs 90 crore. Instead, Hanuman Porob, a social activist, and several innocent villagers were harassed and then arrested and assaulted by police when they questioned the illegal transport. The police ought to have inquired from the Directorate of Mines and Geology and the Pollution Control Board about NOCs and approvals granted for the transport, which are non-existent. They decided to shoot the messenger instead,” the NGO had said.
