Congress keeping Goa illegal mining report under wraps: Gopinath Munde

Panaji : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday accused the Congress of keeping the Justice (retd) M.B. Shah report on illegal mining under wraps with an eye on the March 3 elections in Goa.

Speaking to reporters here, BJP leader Gopinath Munde said that the Congress wanted to keep the indictment of several top Goa Congressmen in the report a “secret” until votes were cast in the assembly elections.

“There is no other reason for them to keep the report on the back burner,” said Munde, who is in Goa to campaign for the BJP.

“The Congress is worried that the indictment of several ministers will affect the chances of the Congress in these elections,” he added.

“Some parts of the report were aired on a private channel. The union government will have to either accept or reject the parts which were aired on the channel,” Munde said, adding that Shah had already submitted his report on illegal mining in Goa to the government.

Senior BJP leaders had earlier accused Kamat in a Rs.25,000 crore illegal mining scam, which is already being probed by a judicial commission led by Justice Shah. The panel is also investigating illegal mining in other parts of the country.

The Congress-Nationalist congress Party (NCP) combine is taking on a Bharatiya Janata Party-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) alliance in the assembly polls here.