Goa mining scam ran through PM’s stint at green ministry

Clearances Were In Violation Of All Norms: Panel

New Delhi: The Justice M B Shah Commission's indictment of the Union environment ministry for disregarding norms and Supreme Court orders to give clearances that facilitated rampant iron ore mining in Goa covers the period when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held charge of the environment and forests portfolio. 
    The commission's censure of the authorities for letting the mines function for more than half a decade in violation of norms for environment protection applies to the two-year spell—from May 17, 2007 to May 27, 2009—when Singh was in charge of the ministry. He was assisted by two ministers of state—Congress's Namo Narain Meena and DMK's S Raghupathy. This was the period between the tenures of two Cabinet ministers —A Raja and Jairam Ramesh. 
    The commission has taken a stern view of the failure of the authorities to rein in the mining industry which has been accused of ravaging Goa'senvironment, and has recommended strong action against them. 
    "Action be initiated against all the officials, secretaries and minister who are involved in such approvals," it said. Significantly, the Union ministry of mines, in its action taken report, has asked the environment ministry to act against authorities, including ministers involved. 
Goa allows trade of illegal ore, opens up dumps 
    The temporary suspension of mining operations in Goa will have little impact as the Manohar Parrikar government has allowed the trade of already extracted ore that has been termed illegal by the panel. It has also advocated extraction and export from existing mining dumps—which by some estimates are pegged at 700 million tonnes and contain low grade ore—which will invite miners given the high international iron ore rates. P 18