Goa mines operating sans environmental clearance face closure

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Panaji, May 3: Around 15 mines operating in the forest areas of Goa without valid environmental clearance will have to shut their operations by the month end, officials said today.
The State Legislative Assembly�s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which met at the Secretariat here, ordered the State Mines and Geology department to close these mines as they have not obtained necessary clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and also from the State Forest Department.
PAC Chairman Manohar Parrikar pointed out that these mines have been operating illegally, for last many years and has been extracting iron ore in several tonnes.
The Committee which had summoned top level officers from Mines and Geology, Transport, State Administration and police also noticed that eight mines were extracting ore much beyond their permissible limits.
PAC has directed the Mines department to write to the MoEF and get their Environment Clearances (ECs) cancelled.
Parrikar said the department will have to get back to PAC by third week of May after writing to the Union Ministry.
"This is an illegality within the legal set up," Parrikar said, adding these mine owners were paying royalty and other charges to the state government but were extracting ore exceeding their limits.
He said the government agencies will have to initiate action against the erring mines and stop their operations immediately. "They will have to file compliance report on May 25 when the PAC meets again," he said.
The PAC Chairman also said this is for the first time that state government has admitted to such large scale illegalities in the mining sector.
"The figures we have is just from three talukas of Sattari, Sanguem and Quepem," he said, adding the rest of the talukas would be taken up subsequently. .