By Our Chief Reporter
Panaji (Goa): Goa Foundation, a NGO whose petition before the Supreme Court resulted in quashing of 88 mining leases, today filed a complaint before Lokayukta against former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and two government officials holding them responsible for the loss to the tune of Rs 1,44,000 crore.
The NGO filed complaint before Lokayukta against Parsekar and State Mines Secretary Pawan Kumar Sain and Director Mines and Geology Prasanna Acharya who have been accused of entering into unholy conspiracy to renew 88 mining leases to several persons in Goa.
Claud Alvares, Director of the NGO, has alleged in the complaint that these renewals appear to be result of corrupt acts.
“This Complaint is being filed before this authority with a plea for it to investigate the circumstances that led to the en masse second renewal of 88 mining leases in the State of Goa to various private stakeholders (lease holders) including one multinational corporation from the period November 1, 2014 to January 12, 2015 through flagrant abuse of power and conspiracy by the persons listed as respondents in this complaint,” Alvares has said.
The NGO has said that the illegal second renewals were done in order to benefit these private persons and companies.
“As a result of these renewals, they benefitted by operating the mining leases allocated for nearly three years from the period 2015-2018, till the intervention of the Supreme Court of India which set aside all these illegal renewals,” it said.
“By these orders, vast public monies were handed over as largesse to private individuals and companies for extraneous considerations outside the purview of the MMDR Act,” the complaint mentions.
The NGO has said that all the three accused be charged under Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in the act of renewing these 88 mining leases for mining in Goa with a total annual production capacity of 44 million tonnes and consequences therefrom.
The NGO has also said that the renewals also resulted in colossal losses to the public exchequer as they temporarily halted the recovery process worth Rs.65,058 crores and were therefore completely against public interest.
They were carried out in willful violation of the provisions laid down in the MMDR Act, Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 and the two Supreme Court’s judgements. The actions, taken jointly and severally, attract Section 13(1)(d) of the PC Act, it adds.
