Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Will follow up on cases via RTI: Goa Foundation.

India Times: Panaji: Wednesay: January 22, 2020.
Reacting to the Lokayukta order for renewal of mining caes, Goa foundation Direcor Claud Alvaris on tuesday said, that they will follow up the case till its logical conclusion. He also said that the review petion filed by the state governmet is just an eyewash. Alvares said they will file applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to know the status of the Lokayukta recommendations. Renewal of such leases is akin to handing it over to the mining companies ‘free of cost’, Alvares said. “In 2015, the leases should not have been granted free of cost. The government ought to have charged crores of rupees by auctioning the leases. 
The public exchequer was deprived of this huge amount, and that is an act of corruption,” Alvares said. Alvares also said that the Lokayukta order will not have any bearing on the ongoing mining cases in the Supreme Court. “I don’t think any government in power, whether it is Congress or BJP I am not willing to make comment on it, will give away 88 mining leases worth Rs 79,000 crore to mining companies without charging something. Even for jobs, one has to pay Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh,” he said. 
Alvares also claimed that this ‘deal’ with the mining companies would have done been as at the party level because former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar signed only one line in the lease renewal documents.