Trinamool Congress MP and party's Goa in charge Mahua Moitra on Friday hit out at Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, saying that despite repeated assurances, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has been unable to restart Goa's beleaguered mining industry.
"The Supreme Court had said that the auctions should be carried out. When Sawant took over, he said mining would be stared in three months. It has been three years, no mining has started in Goa," Moitra alleged.
She also released documents to prove as to how CM Pramod Sawant obtained a lease for a stone quarry at Dodamarg, Maharashtra and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Directorate of Enforement (ED) into Sawant's assets.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate should probe as to how a sitting Chief Minister could (lease) a mine in Sindhudurg. His disproportionate assets should be checked," she said.
The Lok Sabha MP also said that if the party comes to power in the 2022 state Assembly polls, it would make efforts to recover the Rs 35,000 crore loot by mining companies, which was revealed in the report of a judicial commission in 2012.
"We will try to recover as much as Rs 35,000 crore and go with a sustainable mining plan of action," Moitra said.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had dismissed petitions filed by the state government and a private mining company seeking review of a February 2018 order of the apex court, which had scrapped nearly 90 mining leases in the state, stating that there were irregularities in their renewal process. All mining exploration activity in Goa has stopped following the 2018 SC order.
