Illegal mining: Goa government mulls winding up probe committee

PANAJI: Goa government is planning to wrap up Justice (retd) R M S Khandeparkar commission formed a year back to probe into the illegal mining unearthed by Justice M B Shah commission.

"The government is considering to wind up the Khandeparkar committee. The official decision would be taken by the state Cabinet on Wednesday," Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters here today.

The committee, formed in November last, had a tenure of one year to submit its report, but could not meet even once since its inception.

Justice Khandeparkar had blamed lack of infrastructure for the functioning of the committee as the reason behind it not meeting.

The state government had announced the formation of the committee last year after Justice M B Shah commission reported illegalities in the state's mining sector.

The illegal mining was pegged around Rs 35,000 crore by Justice Shah commission, which is yet to file its third and final report.

The Parrikar-led government had announced the formation of a committee to probe deeper into the illegal mining, unearthed by Justice Shah commission and fix the responsibilities.

The chief minister had then said that responsibilities of illegal mining would be fixed depending on the report by the Khandeparkar committee.