Times Of India reported that chief minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday that the government will engage teams of chartered accountants to audit the exports of iron ore from Goa vis a vis the extraction of ore and other such aspects of mining for the last five-six years.

Speaking in the state assembly, Mr Parrikar said he will soon place before the House a draft policy on mining. The policy will cover all aspects of mining and regulate extraction, transportation, storage, etc.

The policy will also address illegalities and issues of environmental damage. It will be open for scrutiny for 30 days and later finalized, Parrikar added.

Responding to Nuvem MLA Francisco 'Mickky' Pacheco's request to table Parrikar's Public Accounts Committee report which Parrikar had finalized last year as opposition leader; Parrikar, now as chief minister, said the report is the property of the House and it is the prerogative of the Speaker to table it. He however agreed to give copies of the document to MLAs if they wanted.

Intervening, Sanquelim MLA Pramod Sawant said that though the government was getting royalty from mining, the mining-affected people of his constituency were not getting any benefits. The chief minister said that "60% paisa" royalty will be ploughed back for the development of the mining belt. He also said that a mechanism will be worked out for usage of the funds by involving MLAs from the mining belt but opposition MLAs could join in.

Source - Times Of India

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