Panaji (GOA): The Goa Foundation (GF), whistleblower in the illegal mining case, has petitioned the Union Ministry of Mines constituted Dr KV Rao Committee recommending that the Inter-generational Equity should be the core of the new National Mineral Policy (NMP), which is been drafting following Supreme Court directives.

The GF has been invited to present its view before the Committee at its third meeting on Sep 26. The committee is been constituted to revisit the NMP 2008 and draft a new policy by December.

“We will remind the KR Rao Committee that the current review of the National Mineral Policy gives us a unique opportunity to leapfrog the rest of the world and institute a more moral mining policy, with state of the art controls and best practices in extraction,” GF director Claude Alvares said in the press statement issued today.

He said that GF advocates that Intergenerational Equity should be at the heart of the new National Mineral Policy.

In its 44 page representation to the Committee, GF has recommended that since mining is the sale of minerals, the people (and not miners) must get the full value when sold; And everything that is received is saved for future generations special funds and since the minerals and the fund belong to the people, any real income should be distributed equally to all as a right of ownership, commons dividend.

He pointed out in his representation that in Goa alone, we were receiving less than five percent of the value of the minerals that have been extracted and sold by miners. “Similar large losses to state exchequers have been found across India for iron ore, coal, oil and gas and public lands,” Alvares stated.