PANJIM | Aug 05, 2015: The Accountant General of Goa (AGG) has indeed opened a pandora’s box and brought in to sharp reality how the Goa government bent over backwards to give second renewals to 88 mining leases, with no approval from the Indian Bureau of Mines.
As Herald reported on Monday, the AGG has sought lease-wise details of permission from IBM on ‘priority’. AGG is apparently conducting audit of the mining leases. The reality is that the AGG is the first institution which has raised the most pertinent query regarding lease renewals and the query is simply this “How were renewals granted without IBM’s approval”.
The fact is that 62 renewals were done from January 1 to 12 out of 89 renewals in a mad scramble to renew leases with effect from 2006 for 20 years, giving them a life of another ten years. As per the MMDR Ordinance 2015 which came into effect on January 12, 2015, (on the very day when 31 leases were fraudulently renewed), leases which were not renewed would have got a life only till March 31, 2020. These renewals (with at last 62 of them without permissions from IBM) have extended the ease till 2027 (20 years from the date of their last renewal).
As per Section 24 A (3) of the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act, a reference to IBM under Section 24A (3) is mandatory before grant of second renewal (and subsequent renewals) of leases. Supreme Court in their judgment (in April 2014) also made this requirement mandatory”.
According to detailed records of lease renewals, in possession of Herald, 62 leases were renewed in the month of January alone, AFTER the Goa government learnt of the impending union cabinet decision of passing the new ordinance which would severely cut the life of non renewed, the Director of Mines was given a “sign at sight order” where as soon as a mine owner landed up at his office in January 2015, his lease was renewed as the mine owner and the Mines Director wished Happy New Year to each other.
The Accountant General of Goa, can immediately take the process of initiating action against these 62 leases because before granting approval for second renewal or subsequent renewal of a mining lease, State government shall seek a report from the Controller General, Indian Bureau of Mines, as to whether it would be in the interest of mineral development to grant the renewals of mining leases. And this report needs to come from IBM within 6 months.
There is no way that the IBM report for leases renewed from January 1 onwards would have been received from the IBM.
When Herald had earlier asked the Director of Mines Mr Prasanna Acharya, he had said “IBM approval was received during the first renewal so it’s not required”. That clearly isn’t the factual position since the leases have been renewed under Section 8 (3) of th MMDR act which pertains to second renewals. And section Section 24 A (3) makes it mandatory to seek IBM’s approvals for second renewals.
The AGG’s intervention is crucial since the entire process of lease renewals will be shown to be fraudulent and may seriously affect the resumption of mining in those leases.
(Source: http://www.heraldgoa.in/)