New Delhi: The BJP-led Goa government, under pressure to act against those responsible for Goa's mega mining scandal, has said in a letter to a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it would be filing first information reports (FIRs) against former chief ministers Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat for their alleged complicity in the mining scandal.
Drafted by Chief Secretary B. Vijayan, the 68-page letter says decisions taken by Rane and Kamat - both from the Congress - in connection with condoning delays in renewal of mining leases merited the registration of FIRs against them. Rane and Kamat are responsible and have taken these decisions and therefore the state government has decided to file appropriate criminal proceedings against them, Vijayan said.
Kamat, who was also the state's mines minister, was Goa chief minister from 2007 to 2012, while Rane was the chief minister from 1980 to 1989, 1994 to 1999 and from 2005 to 2007. "I have nothing more to say. All my decisions were legal and above board," Rane said.
According to the Justice MB Shah commission report, which exposed the scam, the delay in renewing the mines' leases was allegedly improperly condoned by Kamat and Rane in their respective tenures as chief ministers.
Vijayan's letter is addressed to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in New Delhi appointed by the apex court to physically probe the scandal. The Supreme Court, hearing a public interest litigation, has banned all mining activity in the state from October.
The sincerity of the incumbent BJP government in bringing the guilty to book has been criticised by civil society activists and opposition parties. After protesting and campaigning against illegal mining in Goa for nearly a decade as opposition leader, Manohar Parrikar, now chief minister, has gone out of his way to back the mining industry, his critics have alleged.
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