PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has demanded the State government submit to it a list of all the members of the district mineral foundations along with their qualifications to ascertain whether “they are connected with any activities that would defeat the objectives” for which the mineral foundations were constituted.
Hearing a civil application filed by the Goa Foundation which alleged that the mineral foundations were lacking in “members with expertise and infrastructure to solve the problems of the mining affected persons,” the High Court Justices N M Jamdar and Prithviraj Chavan said that they would examine the constitution.
“We would therefore require bio-data of each of the members currently appointed as members of the mineral foundations and regarding all such necessary qualifications required to ascertain whether they can achieve the object, and whether they are connected with any activities that would defeat the object,” the High Court ruled.
The High Court noted that it has already directed the State that “there should be more participation of ex-officio members, considering the fact that each of the mineral foundation is holding an amount of Rs 90 crore each.”
The State Advocate General had earlier told the court that despite being specifically asked to do so, most of the village panchayats affected by mining have not submitted their status of water supply in their villages to the secretary of the respective district mineral foundations.
The court then empowered the Director of Panchayats to act against the secretaries.
“If the secretaries have not contacted the district mineral foundations in spite of the specific order to that effect, the Director of the Panchayats has adequate power to issue disciplinary action. The Director of Panchayats will accordingly issue necessary instructions to the Secretaries of the Village Panchayats to immediately contact the district mineral foundations with the information (regarding water supply),” the High Court ruled. The court also directed the State government to place on record a statement as to how much amount has been spent from the funds of mineral foundations with specific heads thereof before the next date.
