Illegal mining: Pressure mounts on Goa CM to quit

Pressure is mounting on Chief Minister Digamber Kamat to resign after the Public Accounts Committee of Goa Assembly has recommended an enquiry by CBI or the lokayukta against all those indicted by it in the illegal mining cases.

PAC chairman Manohar Parrikar may submit the report to the Speaker on Wednesday despite the committee members from the ruling Congress having refused to sign the document.

The report has spelt out the 'crime scene on the illegal mining front' and it would be for the investigating authorities to find out who is criminal.

The chairman estimated that 18 to 20 million tonnes of ore out of 54 million tonnes that was exported last year was extracted illegally and exported without paying royalty.

"This amounts to losses to the tune of Rs 200 crore," he said adding that all the figures pointed out in the report are taken from the government documents.

Parrikar said that there is huge quantity of ore the origin of which cannot be established adding illegalities to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore are established in the report.

Parrikar also alleged that Chief Minister's inaction over the entire issue was 'well planned'.

"This gentleman has allowed to do these illegalities by looking the other way," he added.

Govt to set up online system by December to check illegal mining

In a move to curb the alarming growth of illegal mining, the government will put in place an online system by December for mandatory registration of all minerals-related transactions in the country.

In the past couple of years, there has been a rapid step-up in illegal mining in various states.

About 24,405 cases of illegal mining have been recorded from January-March this year -- already 30 per cent of the cases reported during entire 2010.

"We are going to introduce an end-to-end accounting system by the end of this year for all mineral transactions including mining, selling, transportation and export by miners, traders and exporters. This will check illegal mining," Mines Secretary S Vijay Kumar told PTI.

Under the online system, registration of miners, traders and exporters of major minerals like iron ore, lime and bauxite will be a must, said Vijay Kumar, who chaired a high-level meeting of senior Central and State government officials to expedite mineral concessions and check illegal mining.

The registration will be done under the Mineral Conservation Development Rules (MCDR) through an amendment.

At present, there are not enough legal provisions for the central intervention in illegal mining in states, but the magnitude of the problem is so high that as many as 82,330 cases were detected in 2010, almost double the 41,578 cases unearthed in 2009.

The Central Coordination-cum-Empowered Committee (CEC) in its meeting today also decided that the government will use satellite imagery to curb the menace.

States have been asked to curb illegal mining by improving monitoring of the mineral system through empowered committees and district level task forces and plugging loopholes in the royalty collection system.

The committee also reviewed the position regarding various important aspects of the mineral concession regime in the country, and stressed the need for bringing about more efficiency and transparency in the system.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Ministries of Environment and Forests, Defence, Home Affairs, Steel, Civil Aviation, Railway, Shipping, Finance. Officials from the Indian Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey of India also participated in the meeting.

Representatives of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu were also present.

Rs.4 lakh seized from house of Janardhana Reddy's driver

The Andhra Pradesh Police today seized Rs.4 lakh from the house of mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy's driver and also searched the houses of relatives of a former government official in an illegal mining case.

The police in Anantapur town searched the residence of Basha, the driver of former Karnataka minister, and seized Rs.4 lakh, two kg of silver articles and some documents.

The driver is being questioned by police, who also searched the houses of former director of mining V.D. Rajagopal and seized some documents, sources said.

The searches were conducted while a court in Anantapur district today remanded in police custody truck driver Venkatarami Reddy and his assistant Eswar Reddy, from whose vehicle Rs.4.9 crore stuffed in three sacks were recovered.

The two were arrested at Guntakal in Anantapur district on Thursday when they were transporting the cash from Bellary district in Karnataka.

They reportedly told police that the cash belonged to Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) managing director B.V. Srinivasa Reddy, who along with his brother-in-law Janardhana Reddy was currently in the custody of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI earlier today took Srinivasa Reddy from Hyderabad to Bellary for the investigations into both the illegal mining and the cash seizure. The investigating agency checked his bank accounts and lockers.

The federal agency, which arrested Janardhana and Srinivasa from Bellary on September 5, has been questioning them since Monday in connection with the illegal mining case registered against OMC in 2009.

The searches in Anantapur and Bellary were conducted amid reports that the accused were shifting large amounts of cash out of Bellary.

The CBI officials were also questioning Rajagopal for the last two days. The prosecutors told the court last week that public servants had colluded with OMC in the illegal mining.

The CBI has also questioned Janardhana Reddy's brothers Karunakara and Somasekhara.

The powerful Reddy brothers hail from Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh but made iron ore rich Bellary their base and extended their mining operations to Anantapur district.