Around 15 mines operating in the forest areas of Goa without valid environmental clearances under the Wildlife Act will have to shut their operations by May end this year,officials said on Tuesday. 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 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 PAC meets again," he said. The PAC Chairman also said this is for the first time that state government on record has admitted about 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. Sattari,Sanguem and Quepem have thick population of the mining sites and also have dense forest cover spanning across Mhadei and Netravali wildlife sanctuaries. Parrikar said the forest department record speaks that there are 60 (out of 105 mining leases) in the forest areas where permission under wildlife protection act is mandatory. PAC has also asked the department to regulate ore reject dumps,which are scattered across the mining belt. The government has identified 320 dumps,of which 70 per cent are within the mining area and 30 per cent in the revenue land. These dumps have 750 million metric tonnes of ore,he said adding the regulation of these dumps is required to control the illegal mining.
