CM Kamat is directly involved in all illegal mining activities: Parrikar

Former Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar said illegal mining continues to be practiced in the state and blamed current CM and mines minister Digambar Kamat for it all.

“Kamat is directly involved in all the illegal and criminal conspiracies going on in the department. He cannot absolve himself. Afterall he’s been the mines minister for 12 long years,” Parrikar told Firstpost.

Parrikar was Goa’s chief minister in the BJP govt, when present CM Kamat was his mines minister.

Parrikar added that export from Goa was about 20-25 percent more than what is extracted by the mines department. “Out of the 50 million tonnes exported from Goa, around 20-25 million is coming from illegal sources,” said Parrikar, an IITian and a qualified engineer in metallurgy.

On the state of mining, Parrikar said that “Goa is on the verge of becoming another Bellary.” He cautioned that unlike Bellary, Goa has a dense forest cover which is being cut down.

“In the last four years, the government has diverted around 1350 hectares of government forest land for mining. Around five lakh four thousand trees have been permitted to be cut down. One can imagine the extent of devastation it must have caused,” he said.

Parrikar denied that the Goan economy is dependent on mining. “According to 2007-08 data, mining caused around 600 crores of environmental damage to the state. Between 2007-11, the quantum of mining has doubled and the damage caused has increased three times. As of today, the damage incurred is to the tune of 1500-2000 crores whereas the revenue generated is only 850 crores. How can mining then be considered as a net earning,” he asked.

Parrikar said illegal mining was rampant even earlier and that he himself brought up the issue in the Assembly in 2006. “But there was no reply from the CM who was then the mines minister too. And the practice continued,” he said.

The former CM added that even now “30 percent of the mines do not have requisite permission.” And Parrikar says the Central government is equally to be blamed. “The Ministry of Environment even at the central level isn’t bothered if the conditions put up by them are followed,” he said.

Watch video of Manohar Parrikar talking about illegal mining in Goa