SC asks Goa to respond to plea seeking reduction of mining cap
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Goa government to respond to a plea seeking its direction to reduce the interim cap on mining in the state from 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 12 MTPA.
A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the state government and some mining companies to file their responses within two weeks and posted the matter for hearing on November 29.
The application, filed by NGO Goa Foundation, has sought reduction of the interim cap on mining, alleging that it has been fixed without taking into account the adverse impact on the citizens and the environment of the state.
It claimed that an expert committee on the cap (ECOC) had recommended in its final report that cap on mining may be increased from 20 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes and the applicant has already filed detailed submissions opposing this enhanced extraction of mineral ores from Goa’s mines.
The plea, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, has alleged that despite two years of mining suspension, one year of no-mining activity and the mining carried out from 2015 to 2017, “there was little or no regulation of mining activity to ensure that when it re-commenced, it did not violate any law”.
“Neither was there any significant improvement of infrastructure on the ground to ensure village communities did not get hurt,” it said.
Referring to Goa’s Sonshi village, the plea said that after the vacation of stay on mining activities, the pollution caused by mining transport has reached “such alarming levels” that multiple authorities, including the Bombay High Court and Goa state commission for protection of child rights, have taken cognisance on their own to provide relief to villagers.
“If such is the situation that could emerge with the existing cap amount, an increase in the cap would be completely unjustified. This is not the situation in Sonshi village alone, but is repeated in other clusters as well,” it said adding that mineral ore was being transported in trucks without any safeguard.
The plea has also raised the issue of absence of infrastructure to govern the mining operations in the state.
The top court had in April 2014 allowed an annual cap of 20 million tonnes of iron ore to be extracted in Goa which was banned by it in the state for nearly one-and-a-half years.
It, however, had said that an expert panel would give final recommendation on annual cap on excavation of iron ore.
The court had in October 2013 stopped mining, transportation and export of iron ore in Goa following a report of irregularities by the Justice M B Shah Commission. MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed a charge sheet in a special court here against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik for allegedly inciting youth to take up terror activities, giving hate speeches and promoting enmity between communities.
“We filed a charge sheet against Naik,” an NIA official said. The 51-year-old televangelist, who is currently abroad, is being probed under terror and money-laundering charges by the NIA. He fled from India on July 1, 2016, after terrorists in neighbouring Bangladesh claimed that they were inspired by his speeches. The NIA had on November 18, 2016, registered a case against Naik at its Mumbai branch under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
His Mumbai-based NGO, Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), has already been declared an unlawful association by the Union home ministry. MOHALI: An unemployed youth, hailing from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing veteran journalist K J Singh and his nonagenarian mother Gurcharan Kaur last month, police said.
The accused, Gaurav Kumar, had an argument with Singh, who then slapped him. Enraged, the youth brutally killed the senior journalist with a kitchen knife and then strangulated his mother, Kaur, who was a witness to the crime, they said.
The veteran journalist and his 92-year-old mother were found murdered at their residence in 3B2 area here on September 23.
Addressing the media here, Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal claimed that the case had been cracked and the knife used in the crime, K J Singh’s car that was stolen, a mobile phone, a wrist watch and a digital video recorder were recovered from Kumar, who is in his late 20s.
According to Chahal, K J Singh and Kumar had a tiff after Singh questioned him for sitting suspiciously in a park close to his house on the night of the crime.
“Singh had questioned the youth for sitting suspiciously in the park and slapped him, following which he killed the journalist and his mother, who was an eyewitness to her son’s murder,” the police official claimed.
Kumar had executed the brutal double murder alone, the SSP claimed.
Police claimed to have apprehended Kumar on Thursday afternoon from the airport road near Sohana Gurdwara here when he was driving Singh’s car with a fake number plate.