Black money: Radha Timblo had illegal Goa mines and a Pakistan connection (Corrected)

Radha Timblo, one of the names disclosed by the Centre in an affidavit to the Supreme Court today (27 October) in connection with illegal accounts held abroad, has been linked to illegal iron ore mining in Goa. The mining lease involved also has a Pakistani connection. [caption id=“attachment_1774353” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] A Times of India report of December 2012, quoting a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) report on illegal Goa mining, noted that “the mining lease was granted in the name of an individual who had migrated to Pakistan and died there. He was never involved in operating the mining lease or seeking renewal of it.” Instead, the lease was allowed to be “operated illegally by a partnership firm comprising Timblo Pvt Ltd, Ms Radha S Timblo and others. The mining lease has been renewed by the Goa government in favour of the partnership firm owned and controlled by the Timblo family by disregarding and in blatant violation of Rule 37 of Mineral Concession Rules, 1960." Raman Kirpal, a Firstpost editor at that time, wrote an extensive story on this mining lease as far back as September 2011. This is what he wrote. “Mavani’s mining lease was not given to anyone till 2004, when Kamat’s Directorate of Mines contended that the Timblo family had entire possession and control of the Mavani mining lease since 1957. It was also contended that there was no documentary evidence proving that Badrudin Mavani had lost Indian citizenship when he moved to Pakistan. “In the absence of Mavani, Kamat put his signature to handing over the Mavani lease to the Timblos for mining. To protect himself, Kamat took an ‘indemnity bond’ from the Timblos in case Mavani or his heirs suddenly reappeared on the scene. ‘It seems it (the mine) was transferred to Timblos long back,’ Kamat claimed. “In Goa’s Wild West kind of dubious mine ownership, illegal operations have become easy. At most mines, details about the name, the lease details, and survey numbers are missing from the site. These open cast mines exist right in the forest area - almost unseen, except by the locals employed there. The contractors who operate them are neither registered with Goa’s Directorate of Mines, nor are they recognised under the Mines and Minerals Regulation and Development (MMRD) Act as lessees. “In short, iron ore is often mined by people who have no claims to the ore. Kamat ran a blind eye to mining operations that have yet to get their licences renewed. According to official records, renewal applications of at least 13 active mining leases have been pending since 1988. This means for 26 years, the Goa government has allowed miners to extract iron ore from these illegally. Only fresh investigations can reveal the motive behind keeping these renewals pending for 26 years. “Even the mines which were cleared in 1988 had a licence validity of 20 years. But when these lessees applied for renewals in 2008, the files were kept “under process”. “Digambar Kamat’s justification: ‘Under the Mineral Concession Rules, if an application for renewal of a mining lease is not disposed of by the state government, the period of that lease shall be deemed to have been extended by a further period till the state government passes an order thereon.’ “By doing nothing, these leases have been made legal till the government acts on them. What kept his government sitting on these lease requests for 26 years? Kamat had no answers. “Firstpost believes that by keeping these renewal requests pending, Kamat has indirectly encouraged illegal mining. Sample these: • Thirty-two active mining leases have no forest clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Prominent among them are VD Chowgule (five mines), VM Salgaocar (one mine), Soc Timblo Irmaos Ltd (four mines), Sesa Resources Ltd (one mine), Kund Kharse (three mines, which are operated by Timblos and Salgaocar as contractors) and Cavrem and Curpem Mines (owned by Shaikh Mohd Issac and Aziz SA Gofur). • Eighteen active mining leases have not taken wildlife clearances under the EC. These include Sesa Mining Corp Ltd (Vedanta), VM Salgaocar & Bro. Pvt Ltd and MS Chowgule. • At least 34 active mines have no air and water clearance.” It is not surprising that illegal mines, which generated illegal profits, should now find a link to illegal accounts abroad. The government has given three names to the Supreme Court, but the illegal mining activity has rampant, and the chances of more names beyond the Timblos surfacing are high. (Editor’s note: In the earlier version of this story, we had mentioned that the Timblos owned Cidade de Goa. The owners of Cidade de Goa are Auduth and Anju Timblo, who have nothing to do with the mining and black money controversy mentioned in this copy. We have changed the copy in this corrected version. We apologise to the owners of Cidade the Goa and our readers for this error.)