44 Goa mines guilty of exceeding productn limits: Union Govt

PANAJI: Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has at present initiated action against 25 mines in Goa which had exceeded the limit of extraction.

Joint Secretary in the Union Mines Ministry, G Srinivas, in an October 25 letter to the Goa government, has said that 44 mines exceeded the 20 per cent targeted production limit.

"Of these, IBM has taken action against 19, and initiated action against balance 25 mines in terms of Mineral Conservation and Development Rules (MCDR)," Srinivas says.

The letter states that aggregated production from all the 114 mines is within the permissible 15 per cent of targeted run-of-mines production in the approved mining plans.

"However, taken on a mine level basis, 44 mines had exceeded the 20 per cent limit," the letter reads.

Srinivas has asked Goa government to conduct environment impact study through Goa State pollution Control Board (GSPCB) to ascertain impact of the violations of extraction limit.

The letter is significant as it contradicts state government's contention that there has been no extraction of ore in excess of the Environment Clearance (EC) permissions.

The state had told the Bombay High Court (Goa bench) that the excess exports were due to handling of dumps (reprocessing of low-grade, dumped ore).

Justice M B Shah-led commission has been probing the illegal iron ore trade in the state, which is pegged at anything between Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 10,000 crore a year.