Pits of corruption

Goa's mining industry is facing a crisis of reputation following a series of writ petitions, a leaked PAC report and an inquiry by a commission. Besides, the leaked report of the Goa Assembly's Public Accounts Committee, headed by Leader of the Opposition Manohar Parrikar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has sought an inquiry into the various aspects of the illegal mining that goes on in the State and the failure of the departments that are responsible for monitoring the industry. State Congress president Subhash Shirodkar and GMOEA secretary Swaminathan Sridhar argue that except in a few cases, comparisons of Goa to Karnataka vis--vis illegal mining namely extracting ore from land where there is no lease granted or without the permission of the leaseholders are grossly exaggerated. Neither the Goa Foundation nor the PAC chairman is willing to accept the mining industry's assertion that non-compliance with statutes or delayed royalty payments be termed as irregularities and not illegalities. In addition, the Karnataka Lokayukta's report on illegal mining recommended the recovery of the cost of 45,59,365 tonnes of illegal iron ore transported from Tinaighat to Sanvordem railway station by some 40 consigners between 2006 and 2010, before ore movement from Karnataka to Goa was stopped.