In a bid to identify “rogue” traders, the Goa Government has decided to classify all the 90-odd mining leases in the State into three different categories depending on their mining status.
The State Mines and Geology Department has decided to embark on a massive exercise which includes personal visits to all the mining leases, checking records, licenses and segregating them according to their legal status.
“Those (leases) that are having all the permissions will be marked as green, those awaiting licenses from authorities after applying for permissions will be marked brown and those which have absolutely no permissions will be coded red,” Director of Mines and Geology, Mr Prasanna Acharya, said.
Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar has cracked the whip to break the backbone of illegal mining in the State after he took over the reins.
Soon after suspending the controversial director of the department, Mr Arvind Lolienkar and replacing him with Mr Acharya, the chief minister came up with the idea of classifying the mines.
Two separate teams, each led by an officer of the rank of deputy director would visit these mines to check the records. The ore extracted from a mine coded ‘red' and ‘brown' would be considered as illegal while only mines marked ‘green' can tap and export the minerals.
Mr Acharya further said that several mines which are not extracting ore were exporting minerals by excavating the old mining rejects lying around in the State.
The Goa Government has banned handling of these dumps unti further orders, he said.