New Delhi: The Supreme Court today reserved its order on putting the annual cap on volume of iron ore to be extracted in Goa which has been banned in the state for neary one and half years.
The apex court said it will pass the order in a "few days" and the cap will be subject to the final report of the expert panel.
Representational image. Reuters
"Whatever (cap on mining) we decide in the judgement will be subject to the final report of the panel," a bench comprising justices AK Patnaik, SS Nijjar and FMI Kalifulla said.
The bench also said it cannot go into the policy matter and will only address the regulatory aspect involved in it.
The expert panel has recommended to Goa government forming a mining corporation or a public sector company in view of illegalities by private miners.
"We have to balance between sustaining environment and and economic growth," the bench observed. Senior advocate Harish Salve, assisting the court as amicus curiae in the case, read out portions of the expert panel report that was submitted in the apex court yesterday.
To a question what will happen to money received from e-auction of iron ore if it decides to cancel mining licences in Goa, Salve suggested the money should go to the state government after giving a "normative cost" of mining to miners.
The expert panel, appointed by the Supreme Court, on Wednesday submitted its reports, recommending that for the time being, iron ore mining of up to 20 million tonnes annually be allowed in Goa.
The report suggested it was not "desirable" to start fresh extraction of iron ore.
The panel said there is a "large-scale degradation" of eco-system in Goa by mining and the restoration needs timely monitoring and recommended creating a "permanent fund" for the purpose.
On e-auction of iron ore till now, the committee said about 1.62 million tonnes of iron ore had been auctioned in two rounds till now and approximately Rs 260 crore realised from it.
The apex court had on November 11, 2013 allowed e-auctioning of nearly 11.48 million tonnes of extracted iron ore lying unused in Goa for over a year after it halted mining operations in 90 mines there.
The apex court, which had on October 5 last year stopped mining, transportation and export of iron ore in Goa following a report of irregualrities by the Justice M B Shah Commission, also ordered setting up of another six-member panel asking it to file its report by February 15, 2014, suggesting the annual cap on the volume of iron ore to be extracted.
The six-member panel has one representative each from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Department of Mining besides "an ecologoist, a geologist, a mineralogist and an expert on forest."
PTI
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