The Supreme Court has allowed the plea to extend time to transport mined iron ore till January 31st 2021.
The Supreme Court has allowed time up to the end of January 2021, to the mining lessees for the removal of iron ore excavated/mined on or before March 15, 2018, subject to payment of royalties and other charges.
Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, in a 13 page judgment, said the quantity of mineral to be removed by each of the lessees shall be determined by the concerned officials with reference to the records of the government maintained at the pertinent point of time.
Mines in Goa are lying shut since the Court ordered cancellation of all leases in February 2018 and ordered fresh auction of the mines with the environment clearance to restart them.
The Bench, which comprised Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, gave liberty to the State government to invoke power under Rule 12(1)(hh) of The Minerals (Other than Atomic and Hydro Carbons Energy Minerals) Concession Rules, 2016, if the lessees could not remove the mineral within the time given.
The particular rule empowers the government to confiscate the mineral not removed within six calendar months of end of the lease and dispose it without liability to pay any compensation to the lessee.
The Court said the rule is clear that any property remaining on the lease land at the end of six calendar months after the expiry or sooner, termination of the lease term and not removed by the lessee within one calendar month is liable to be confiscated.
It said that Goa Foundation may be right in contending that the State government should have invoked the rule to confiscate the mineral allegedly lying at the site for the past more than two-and-a-half years. “But the difficulty today is that Rule 12(1) (hh) was not pressed into service before this Court when it rendered the judgment dated 30.01.2020.” Hence, that judgment giving six months to the lessees to remove the material has attained completeness.
Chowgule and Company Private Limited along with other lessees had moved the Apex Court seeking more time to remove the iron ore lying on their sites. The request for extension was because the six months allowed to the miners in January were wasted in the formalities and delay on the part of the authorities to issue transit permits for transportation of the royalty paid ore and then the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The time given by the Court expired on July 30, 2020 and the lessees sought an extension of time to transport the iron ore extracted on or before March 15, 2018. The plea was opposed by Goa Foundation on the ground that a month’s period granted to the miners in 2018 had included the time to remove the mined mineral. The Court rejected Goa Foundation’s objection that the lessees can still make payment of royalty at the time of movement of the ore or they can remove only the “royalty-paid ore”.
The objection was rejected on the ground that the two orders of April and May 2018 had used the expression “royalty paid ore” in the context of the mineral removed from the mines and brought to the jetties on or before March 15, 2018. Regarding the mineral mined on or before that date but still lying in the lease-hold area, the Court took cognizance of the Advocate General’s statement that the government has complete details of the mineral already excavated on or before March 15, 2018 and as such the lessees cannot remove more than what is on the government records.
Mining Truckers to stay away from ore transportation
Mining truck owners have decided to stay away and not allow ore transportation until their demand for an increase in the rates is not fulfilled by the State Government, even though the Supreme Court has allowed transportation of extracted ore till the end of January 2021.
Balaji Gauns, President of Dharbandora Truck Owners’ Association, stated that the truckers have demanded a minimum rate of `22 per tonne per km and the market rate for diesel against the `12.33 per tonne per km and `52 as diesel rate.
Gauns further stated that the truckers have decided to remain firm on their demand until it is fulfilled. He said the truckers have also decided not to allow the transportation of ore by trucks other than the registered ones, and if such a thing were to happen then a law and order situation may prevail in the mining areas.
He said through the transportation of the extracted ore till January 2021, the truckers will earn a maximum of Rs 1 lakh “but the cost of maintaining a truck, payment of road tax and other fees comes to around Rs 1.50 lakh per year and it’s not viable at all.” Considering it, the truckers are demanding higher rates, he said. Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) has urged the Chief Minister to restart mining activities, stating that the Supreme Court Order allowing transportation of the extracted ore till January 2021 will benefit only 30 per cent of the mining dependants, while the others will continue to suffer.
Puti Gaonkar, President of GMPF said, “The Chief Minister should come clean on whether he can resume mining in the State so that mining dependants will know whether to wait with hope or else give up in despair,”
“Allowing transportation of ore for a few more months will benefit companies and the government, but mining dependants won’t benefit much, as the cost of maintaining vehicles are much more than what the truck owners will earn in a few months of ore transportation. Instead, the Chief Minister should work on resuming actual mining in the State,” Gaonkar said.
Gaonkar added that he suspects vested interests in the government are not keen on resuming mining in Goa, as they could be aiming to make way for other big companies. He also said that if the Chief Minister cannot resume mining, the government should take over all the machinery, barges and vehicles of mining dependants and clear their loans
