FIR against Kamat, Rane within 15 days: Parrikar

Panaji : Former Goa chief ministers Digambar Kamat and Pratapsing Rane and other government officials will be booked within 15 days in connection with the Rs. 35,000 crore mining scam which has been unearthed by the Justice M.V. Shah Commission of enquiry, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said Saturday.

“A First Information Report (FIR) will be filed within 15 days,” said Parrikar, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been accusing erstwhile Congress governments in Goa of being part of a mining mafia.

Kamat, chief minister from 2007 to 2012 and a mines minister for over a decade, has been severely indicted in the Shah Commission report for overseeing the plunder of natural resources by unscrupulous mine owners. Rane has been a chief minister for over two decades.

Parrikar also said that the state government was also preparing an action plan to implement the recommendations made by the Commission, which tabled its report in parliament Friday.

“Those mines with serious irregularities will be closed down immediately,” Parrikar said.

All major mining companies from Goa which includes Sesa Goa and companies run by the influential mining families in Goa namely the Timblos, Salgaonkar Chowgules, etc. have been hauled up by the Shah Commission in its damning report which has recommended that Goa’s annual production of ore be brought down from over 50 million tonnes to 12.5 million tonnes annually.