08 September 2012

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Goa mining scam loss to Indian citizens Rs 34,935 crore Justice M.B. Shah Commission report

Goa mining scam loss to Indian citizens Rs 34,935 crore Justice M.B. Shah Commission report

Updated Thursday, September 13, 2012

Justice M.B. Shah Commission report on the Goa mining scam has pegged losses to the State at nearly Rs 35,000 crore.

Mining in Goa is spread over 500 hectares of area, several hundred acres of which is forest as well as Government-owned land.

Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was the Mines Minister for 12 consecutive years.

The voluminous report holds the state government and central government agencies as parties to the scam, along with the powerful mining operators  who according to Justice Shah, plundered natural resource and facilitated an "unrestricted, unchecked and unregulated export of iron ore to China", which made the exporters of ore "richer and richer".

Agencies named in the report include the Indian Bureau of Mines, Union Ministry for Environment and Forest, State directorate of mines, State forest department and the Goa State Pollution Control Board.


Shah Commission in its report said that
By taking average export cost at $60 per metric tonnes of iron ore from 2006 to 2011 with conversion rate of Rs47 per US$, the total loss to the State comes out to be Rs3,49,35,92,88,000,”

Shah Commission also said that the mining firms which have been allowed to illegally extract and export ore should be fined "exemplary" for the financial loss, loss to the environment, ecology, and punished for the wrongdoing.

Shah recommended that "All mining activities should be stopped with immediate effect, including transportation for all-mining leases where there is no approval or clearance of the Standing Committee of NBWL and are falling within 10 km of eco-sensitive buffer zone,"

Updated Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Union environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Wednesday announced the suspension of environment clearances given to all 93 functional mining leases in the state. 

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Tags – Goa Mining Scam