Trading license illegal, new mining scam unearthed
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 02 January 2013 21:17 IST
The issue of illegal mining has taken a new twist with Goa government giving trading license to export iron ore to over 400 traders considered to be totally illegal.
Social activist fighting illegal mining – Ramesh Gawas – has demanded to scrap all these trading licenses.
The mining department is still revalidating the licenses. These licenses are given ALSO to other firms than the legal mining lease holders. Watch this HCN exclusive.
Illegal mining in Goa started in Goa from around 2004 and reached its peak from 2009 onwards.
According to Gawas, the root cause of it was the system introduced in 2004, to give trading licenses to export iron ore.
He says only the lease holders can either export or sell the extracted iron ore to the local industry.
In spite of this, Gawas points out that the mining department framed rules.
It is called The Goa (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transport and Storage of Mineral) Rules 2004.
A provision was introduced in these rules to give trading licenses. Gawas says the law does not provide to make rules for trading license but only to prevent illegal mining.
The website of the mining department shows that granting trading licenses to others than the lease holders started from January 2005.
Within one year in 2005, Goa government granted trading licenses to 161 firms. From 2006 to 2009 in four years, 102 new trading licenses were granted.
And within two years in 2010 and 2011, 170 new trading licenses were given. The total mining export trading licenses given were 433.
What it means that Goa government went on giving licenses to export iron ore when they did not have any permission to extract the iron ore.
Only 25 of these 433 are the mining lease holders. The rest 408 are just traders, without any mining lease.
After the new government came to power this year, the mining department has revalidated 43 trading licenses in one month of April.
Even this list has other traders than the lease holders, whom we call mine owners.
According to Gawas, the illegal mining increased in leaps and bounds because of these trading licenses, which are completely illegal.
He thus demands that the mining department should not revalidate these licenses but scrap them all.
