After panel objects, SC stays permits of 18 Goa mines

On the report of the Central Empowered Committee it set up, the Supreme Court has stayed Temporary Mining Permits...

On the report of the Central Empowered Committee it set up, the Supreme Court has stayed Temporary Mining Permits (TMP) granted to 18 mining companies in Goa by the Centre. In its earlier order on November 21, the SC had said that the Environment Ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee’s clearance of TMPs in relation to these mines should be submitted to the Central Empowered Committee for evaluation and the matter would be decided on the basis of CEC’s objections and observations.

The CEC in its report submitted to the court said none of the mining leases can be recommended as they have been granted in violation of norms. “In case any such permission had been granted, they should be immediately withdrawn,” the report has stated.

The Indian Express had reported on November 22 that at least 49 private projects on forest land across the country cleared by the Centre since last year are under a cloud after the CEC alleged a slew of “irregularities” in the way the clearances were given. In one case, more than 100 hectares of forest land were given away for mining two weeks before the state Government’s recommendation came.

Of the 29 cases the FAC approved since 2006, in the first batch the CEC put the brakes on seven claiming their clearances “smacked of undue haste, favours and arbitrariness…made without following the guidelines.”

These projects involve diversion of more than 500 hectares of forest land for mining, industry and power. The CEC has also rejected another 42 of the 55 private projects which the FAC cleared between May and September this year.