Panaji, Feb 16 (TOI): NGO Goa Foundation on Thursday demanded that special investigation team (SIT) should file first information report against chief minister Manohar Parrikar, former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, mining companies and others for renewing 88 mining leases in the state.

Goa Foundation director Claude Alvares said director of mines Prasanna Acharya and former mines secretary Pawan Kumar Sain should also be named in the case.

Speaking to reporters, Alvares said, “If an FIR is not registered then they will approach the court to direct the SIT to file the same.”

The NGO director said if the government follows the set procedure to grant leases then it will take at least five years to resume mining in the state. He said renewal of leases yielded the exchequer just Rs 700 crore as stamp duty, half of which has not been paid, while the value of the ore is around Rs79,000 crore.

Goa Foundation said due to granting of mining leases till 2027, the government surrendered Rs 79,000 crore. This is the same NGO that had dragged the state government to the Supreme Court over renewal of mining leases. The move resulted in the apex court’s judgment, on February 7, quashing the renewal of 88 leases in 2015.

Alvares said, “According to us all the people who are involved in grant of renewal of mining leases should go to jail.”

He said, “Out of the 88 leases renewed, six were by Parrikar and 82 by Parsekar, I don’t think Parsekar would have taken this decision on his own because it is the party which is doing it and benefiting.

Most of the Congress leaders in Goa should have been gone to jail because of illegal mining in the state, he added.

Goa Foundation director said if the government wants private operators to run mining in the state, then it will take five years to resume operations and if the government decides to run the mines through a corporation then it can start fast.