It was around 9.30 on Monday evening last. Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar had just cleared the issuance of the notification to suspendall mining operations of all working leases in Goa till further orders. A televisionjournalist from Prudent Media asked how mine owners reacted to his order.Parrikar paused, smiled and asked “I have just shut down their operations. Howdo you expect them to react?” He then continued, “I called them to inform themthat I am taking this decision and what will follow.”
In this one stroke Parrikar took the scope of cleaning up themining trade from the nadir it had reached during the Congress government, fromthe Union government and kept in ensconced within the ambit of the state. Thismove, and let there be absolute clarity on this, is not an ‘action taken” onthe Shah Commission’s observations. This has to be seen as an attempt, whichthe Chief Minister must carry to its logical conclusion, not to let miningactivity take the uncontrolled, non-transparent haywire route that it took,till its levels became deliberately unmanageable. If this can’t be done now bya government that did not perpetrate the mess, since a quantum leap in exportsdue to the China boom took place from 2005 onwards, it will never be done.
Will the Environment Minister who came to Goa as the Congressspokesperson and announced that EC clearances would be suspended for miningleases, clean up the mess in Goa, when the architects of the mess includedtheir own Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and hand-picked officials of the minesdepartment headed by Director Arvind Loliencar? The Kamat government allowedabsolute free run of fly by night operators, mining traders who had nothing todo with the business, as well as mining companies in Goa who indulged in grossmining malpractices including fudging and manipulating figures of ore mined.
It’s extremely convenient for Ms Natarajan to overlook thefact that Goa’s general disgust against the Congress’ corruption and nepotismalso included mining illegalities with several of its ministers and MLAsdirectly involved in the excavation and transportation. They in turn worked forothers including MLAs who were mining barons, as raising contractors in thegarb of mining machinery suppliers.
It was during the same time that a Public Accounts Committeeheaded by Parrikar, as the then leader of the opposition, investigated miningillegalities, where EC violations of several companies came into play. Someminers mined illegally, gave illegally mined ore to raising contractors andtraders, a majority of whom did not even disclose their proper addresses andshipped out this ore on the basis of NOC challans issued by the minesdepartment, with no checks and verifications. Most of this ore was shipped outof the Panjim port using transhippers whose licenses had expired and did nothave further papers from the DG shipping.
Goans should know that the PAC report never saw the light ofday because Congress members, including those who attended just one meeting ofthe PAC, created a ruckus at the meeting venue, with the then MLA fromCalangute Agnelo Fernandes, running out of the meeting venue with the PACpapers in hand, un-signed. Does the Congress have any face to even discuss ordefend their actions on illegal mining except hang their heads in shame andhold out their hands to be held and led to the law for severe action.
The PCC president SubhashShirodkar has a rollicking mining transportation business and “runs” a miningconcession on behalf of others. The jury is out on whether all his operationsare legal. Jitendra Deshprabhu, who claims to be the PCC spokesperson, has beenarrested on charges of illegal mining.
Perhaps Jayanthi Nattarajan did not realise or had amomentary lapse of reason when she sat on the dais, to pontificate and declarethat “in the Congress people take responsibility for their actions”. WhichCongress leader in Goa, whether involved in illegal mining, or fraudulentallotment of SEZ plots or making money from kickbacks from PWD contracts, hastaken responsibility for their actions?
If the Shah Commission has pointed out gross illegalities, ithas clearly elaborated on the administrative collapse of mining governance,including the complete absence of coordination between state and centralagencies, which includes Ms Natarajan’s own Ministry of Environment and Forests.If the entire debate centers around the Shah Commission recommendations, on thebasis of which action follows then, why should Jayanthi Natarajan herself bespared when section 13 of the Action Taken report has recommendedidentification of officials “including the minister” for stipulating conditionsfor wildlife clearances beyond the scope of the wildlife protection act. How can an accused be the InvestigatingOfficer in a criminal case?
That is the reason and the only reason, why the current stategovernment in Goa, must be allowed to do its work to bring transparency andheld to severe account if it doesn’t. Let there be a credible investigation toascertain if the ore lying to be exported is legal in all aspects, post which,let all documents related to mining leases, and of every lease, be examined bya credible committee of experts before mining is allowed to resume. It’s clearthat if the Congress can’t be trusted to do its job, then trust, at least fornow has to be reposed on the current Chief Minister to implement what he hasset out to do. With the level of scrutiny and investigation, even Mr Parrikarcan’t escape criticism and save himself from censure and political setback ifhe doesn’t do his job.
Let Goa hold him to account to what he said in aninterview last week when asked “Won’t people connected to mining sufferfinancially, if mining stops?” Parrikar said “I will take care of that, butthis is, above all else, about Goa.”
