CIRCULARS ARE PLENTY ON MINING, BUT SITUATION IS UNTOUCHED -- CLAUDE ALVARES
Much was expected from the new government on the issue of mining in Goa. HERALD spoke to long time anti-mining campaigner, Dr Claude Alvares to find out what changes have come about on the ground. Excerpts from the interview. Q: How effective do you think the new government has been in dealing with the mining issue? A. They've been passing a circular a week, but the principal scenario is untouched. Trucks are coming out from mining areas without any controls. Traffic is still blocked. Q Then government would argue it is a transportation problem, that requires a mining bypass to sort out. A. I don't know why the government is so bothered about keeping mining going. It is as if there is some commitment of the Goa government to the mine owners to keep the mines going. The government of Goa does not know what is coming out of any mine. Till today, I can tell you categorically, whatever activities are taking place, are taking place without the knowledge of the IBM [Indian Bureau of Mines], or the department of mines and geology. It is very clear, there is no officer on site. Nothing. They go once in a way for an inspection. So as of now it is a factual thing that ore is being extracted, and taken out, above environment clearance limits. Q. But some mines have been closed down. A. Maybe 30-35 out of 90 are closed, as a result of our litigation. Government has not closed a single mine. As a matter of fact, closed mines have opened during Parrikar’s rule. Dinar Tarcar is a very famous case. When Dinar Tarcar reopened after the elections, the Mines Department said it did not know. I pointed out that Dinar Tarcar's mines are on the top of the list of the BJP's PAC report. But he is operating. Nothing is changing. Mr Parrikar could have immediately called for the file and asked how did this happen. When a government wants to do something, the government will do it. But when the government wants to use some excuse.... Q. So what is the status as of now? Do you think the government is taking action against illegal mining? A. I will give you an example of the Sonshi mines. The dump has gone to the height of 90 metres. 30 metres is permissible. Till today the mine is going on operating. Now they have closed for the monsoons. And there is an illegal dump 2 km long, the biggest in the state of Goa, completely done by Sesa Goa, in full view of everybody, in full view of all the authorities. Their license has not been revoked, consent has not been revoked. They have destroyed a good amount of forest by making the dump. We've seen it on Google pictures. The forest was there, now there is no forest there. Mud has been put on the trees and buried. Q So what is this thing about the 400 traders having to re-register? A. That is to bring some control. Because all these traders were stealing from here, there, one truck would suddenly disappear somewhere. This is all because of not having any control. The chief secretary's high powered committee came out with a decision last year, that every truck will have a label, will have this, will have that. They refuse to implement anything. RFID can be manipulated wherever you want. RFID is based on you having an officer on the site. The excise revenue of Goa is nothing compared to mining's Rs 22,000 cr. Yet, there there is an excise inspector posted in every liquour producing plant in Goa, they fight over transfers, officials get shifted out for transferring people. You can put one official inspector at every mine, on a strict job that if you find any truck coming out of a mining lease without a proper assessment, what is quality and quantity of ore etc, you lose your job in 24 hours. You could set up a system if you want. Q They have divided the issue into legal and illegal mining. A. I have said that show me any mine and I will show you how they are all illegal. Somebody is operating in brazen violation of conditions laid down in the Environment Protection Act. What is it, legal or illegal? Q. These are called irregularities. Not like in Bellary, where anyone was just excavating in land that did not have any permissions to start with. A. In this business you only create new terms for continuing the same rubbish. U V Singh said Goa was worse than Bellary. Somebody taking out twice the amount of ore is just an "irregularity"? Why not see what independent people say? The government could have set up two committees, one for North and South Goa. Put 2-3 NGOs on them and give them the powers to go and visit all the mines. Go in groups, check their environment clearance, consent terms. If they are in violation, stop them on the spot. Q What do you feel needs to be done? You sound clearly unhappy with the present government's actions on mining. A. Parrikar has not been able to control trucking at all. He is more interested in setting up the mining bypass. It is stated in the project proposal that the public cannot use the road. So why should the public pay for it? If the government has money, it should fix the bus-stands used by thousands. But instead you are building a bypass road for the mining industry. Two and a half thousand trucks are owned by one man, who has shifted them from Bellary to ply here. Why do you allow that? If you dispatch all the trucks from Karnataka plying on Goa roads, saying that our roads are overcrowded, you will take care of 25% of the problem. At a press conference in Delhi, the BJP said Rs 25,000 cr illegal ore had gone out of Goa. What has been done to catch the people responsible? The parties are in Goa, their accounts are here. Has even one case been lodged against those companies? The whole exercise of the Goa government is to enable things to keep on rolling. You cannot control illegal mining by issuing circulars. Q. Have not the circulars sorted out some of the problems? A. The circulars are mostly on the traders. I don't read them. I am looking at what is happening on the ground and in the mines. There nothing has changed. In today's paper there is a report that mines in the Selaulim area are causing problems. There is a 20 year old NEERI report that says the iron and manganese content in Selaulim is above safety levels. By now that content will have gone up, since metals stay where they are. In public interest all those four mines operating should have been closed. They are not. They could have closed all the mines on Khandepar. They could have said the water supply to Goa is more important than your mines. Q. So are you saying the action against the mining traders was insufficient, a smokescreen of sorts? A. These are all superficial things. The traders are only the flies that come on the garbage heap. One has to deal with the garbage heap first. If anyone in government is really interested, they can check every mine on Google. Take a Google maps sequence for five years data on each of the 50 mines operating, and you can see how the mine site has changed. You don't even have to visit the site. I don't think this government will do much. When he first began, Parrikar said he would put a cap on 20 million metric tones, then raised it 30 million metric tones, then he said 40 million tones. What does this mean? When he was in the opposition he said 3 km buffer zone for mining outside wildlife sanctuaries is mandatory. Now we cannot even get one kilometer buffer. The committee that was supposed to submit its report on 12 May has delayed it to 31 July? Why do you think it was done? Why is the mines portfolio only with the CM each time? If it was lucrative for them in Karnataka, it is going to be lucrative for them in Goa. Q. But mining does sustain the Goan economy? You cannot entirely shut it down? A. Mining is not sustaining the Goan economy. It is stealing from the Goan economy. It made Rs 22,000 cr from 54 million tones at Rs 5000 a tones. If that money had come to the Goa government instead of private owners, think of the care and welfare measures the government could have done. Instead it collects Rs 900 cr in royalty, which it says it will use to rehabilitate mining affected areas. Rehabilitation should be the duty of the mining industry not government. Q. You are demanding, like the AITUC, that the industry be nationalized? A. Yes. It can be cut down by two thirds. Instead of Rs 22,000 cr, you will get Rs 10,000 cr. The entire state budget is Rs 6000 cr. Income from all sources is Rs 4200 cr. Everywhere in India, it is being done by public sector companies.