Goa Lokayukta yet to receive govt reply in illegal mining scam

Goa Lokayukta Justice (retd) P S Mishra today said he was yet to receive the state government's clarification on its complaint to the ombudsman over the alleged illegal mining scam.
The Goa government, led by then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, had filed a complaint to the Lokayukta about three years ago, fixing liabilities in connection with the illegal mining.
Several politicians, mine owners and government officials were named in the scam, as per the inquiry conducted by Justice (retd) M B Shah Commission. It had estimated that a whopping Rs 35,000 crore worth of illegally extracted ore was exported by the state.

"In case of illegal mining, the state governmenthad made some reference (complaint). Lokayukta had sent back the paper and sought some clarification on the same. However, the government's reply is yet to be received.
"There is nothing related to mining before Lokayukta at present," Mishra told PTI.
Officials in Lokayukta said the clarification was sought in the year 2013, by the then Lokayukta Justice (retd) B Sudarshan Reddy.

Mishra said the state government can refer the cases to Lokayukta under section 9 (2) of Goa Lokayukta Act, 2011.
"The reference made by government (case filed by government) is then examined. The preliminary enquiry can be initiated. We had sought the clarification in the (illegal mining) case," he said.

The Lokayukta said he could not divulge the time frame within which the government was supposed to revert to them, as "the entire file has been sent back to the government".
"If the government does not revert to us, there is no case before the Lokayukta," he added.