PANAJI | March 20, 2015: Justice MB Shah Commission found illegalities in the case of 90 mining leases in Goa, but the BJP government in Goa and the Congress government at the Centre went overboard and stopped all mining operations in Goa in a game of one-upmanship, retired IAS officer Aravind Bhatikar says in his book on the mining imbroglio, 'The Rudderless Democracy', to be released next week.

In the book consisting of 11 chapters and 400 pages, Bhatikar states that neither the Goa government, the government of India nor the Supreme Court took into account the economic importance of mining for Goa while banning the operations. This led to the suffering of people involved in the sector in Goa for no fault of theirs, he said.

"The Goa government took a stand in the Supreme Court that action will be taken against the mining companies for the alleged illegalities committed by them. The Goa government in the Supreme Court has rejected almost all the findings made in the Shah Commission report. The question is: Why did the Goa government not go by its own assessment and why did it suspend all mining operations in such a hurry?" Bhatikar asked TOI. He said that the Goa government's reaction was a knee-jerk one and without any valid reasoning.

Bhatikar said that the stated loss of 35,000 crore to the exchequer due to illegal mining operations is a myth and that the state administration will be unable to establish such a loss. "It will be like trying to find a black cat in a dark room blindfolded," he said.

He calls the book a critique of the reports of the MB Shah Commission, the Central empowered committee, the judgment of the Supreme Court and governance at the central and state levels on the alleged illegal mining in Goa.

"I found that in many places, the comments made by Shah Commission in its report are not appropriate...The commission's repeated observations that there has been tremendous degradation of the environment due to the alleged illegal mining seems to be exaggerated," Bhatikar said. He said that the only agency which has certified the environmental degradation is the Indian School of Mining, Dhanbad, which had undertaken a survey for the MoEF and these findings do not seem to support the Shah Commission's observations, except in the case of dust pollution parameters.

He said that there is no direct answer to the question over whether mining operations in Goa will begin immediately or not as it will depend on the international situation.

"The prices in the international market right now have fallen beyond profitability levels according to some knowledgeable people in the field and hence mining companies are unlikely to start production immediately in the present scenario. The state will also have to decide on how to treat production of iron ore between 2007 and 2012 because the Supreme Court has declared this production as illegal," Bhatikar said. He also holds the former Congress government in Goa responsible for the mining imbroglio.

"If the mining industry was properly administered from 2005 to 2011, during the Chinese boom, the commission might not have been appointed as far as Goa was concerned," Bhatikar said.

The book will be released on May 30 in Panaji by former chief secretary of Maharashtra B M Sukthankar and retired IAS officer and former chief secretary of Goa J C Almeida, will be the guest of honour.

The book will be released on May 30 in Panaji by former chief secretary of Maharashtra B M Sukthankar and retired IAS officer and former chief secretary of Goa J C Almeida, will be the guest of honour.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)