Shah Commission is wrong; mining scam only around Rs 100 cr: Parrikar
Panaji, July 25 : The Justice M.B. Shah Commission's estimate of Goa's mining scam being a whopping Rs 35,000 crore is based on a wrong survey and its real extent is unlikely to be more than Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday.
"The Shah Commission report is based on survey carried out by hand-held gadgets... They did not do a proper survey. They should have done a proper survey," Parrikar told the assembly during Question Hour in reply to a question by former Chief Minister and Congress legislator Luizinho Faleiro.
Parrikar, who holds the mines portfolio, said the Commission had estimated that lease boundaries had been shifted by mining companies and an additional 580 odd hectares of land was appropriated by them.
But a detailed survey conducted by the state government has revealed that only around 10 hectares of land had been encroached upon by the mining companies, he added.
"The Shah Commission survey is wrong," Parrikar said, adding that the total value of the ore extracted does not represent a loss to the state government, thus lowering the actual loss estimated by the Commission.
"Value of the ore is not loss to the government. The loss to the government is of the royalty (on ore extracted)," Parrikar said.
He also said that the component of revenues earned by the mining sector in Goa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was only five per cent in 2018, in comparision to 2012, when it used to be 17 to 18 per cent.
Mining was stopped in Goa by a series of bans by the state and central governments, as well as by the Supreme Court in 2012.
Goa's GDP is approximately Rs 70,000 crore.
Parrikar also said that early resumption of mining in Goa, which was banned in February, was one of the top priority of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in the coastal state.
The mining issue has been hanging fire in Goa, every since the apex court banned extraction and transportation of iron ore from 88 mining leases from March, while also directing the state to re-issue mining leases.
The is the second time is less than a decade that all mining in the state has come to a standstill.
The 2012 ban was later lifted by the apex court in 2014, but the court was forced to impose the fresh restrictions while slighting the state government for messing up with the lease renewal processes.
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Bypoll: Wayanad witnesses brisk polling
Wayanad/Thrissur(Kerala) (PTI): During the first hour of voting, Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala witnessed a turnout of 6.96 and 7.2 per cent, respectively on Wednesday.
People started arriving early in the morning at the 1,354 polling booths in the hill constituency of Wayanad where there are over 14 lakh registered voters, according to the Election Commission figures.
Some arrived early, while others wanted to get it over with quickly before more people started reaching the polling stations, they told reporters.
It is a holiday in Wayanad LS and Chelakkara assembly constituencies on account of the bypolls.
The Wayanad constituency comprises seven assembly segments of Mananthavady (ST), Sulthan Bathery (ST), and Kalpetta in Wayanad district; Thiruvambady in Kozhikode district; and Eranad, Nilambur, and Wandoor in Malappuram district.
A bypoll was necessitated in the hill constituency after Rahul Gandhi, who won the Wayanad LS seat in the general elections held earlier this year, vacated it after he also won from the Rae Bareli constituency.
There are 16 candidates in the fray for the seat with Congress-led UDF's candidate and Rahul's sister Priyanka, who is making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP-led NDA's Navya Haridas being the top contenders.
Polling in Wayanad commenced amidst tight security arrangements which included deployment of over 2,500 security personnel and live monitoring of the by-election process by an extensive webcasting system.
Voting for the Chelakkara assembly seat in Thrissur district of the state also saw people turning up early at the 177 polling stations in the constituency.
There are six candidates in the fray for the assembly seat, where a bypoll was necessitated after LDF's K Radhakrishnan -- who won from there in 2021 -- was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Alathur constituency by defeating UDF's Ramya Haridas who had won from there in 2019.
Haridas is now contesting from the Chelakkara assembly seat and is pitted against LDF's U R Pradeep and NDA's K Balakrishnan.
There were close to two lakh voters in the constituency during the 2021 assembly election in the state.
Voting began in Wayanad and Chelakkara after a mock poll was carried out by casting votes in favour of all candidates, including NOTA, whose names are there on an EVM.
