Goa govt to seek faster green clearance for mining leases

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar will request the Centre to expedite environment clearances for mining leases in the state. Parsekar would meet Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar during his weekend visit to Delhi and request him to speed up environment clearances to mining firms which are cleared by the Goa government, the Chief Minister told reporters here on Friday. The MoEF had earlier said that the environment clearance would be granted on a case-to-case basis.

The state government will request the MoEF to accelerate the processing of the applications filed by mine owners, Parsekar said.

“If they don’t want to lift the suspension en mass, then they should at least expedite processing the applications filed by mining firms,” he said.

Earlier, the then Minister Jayanthi Natarajan had suspended all environmental clearances of the mines in the state following Justice M B Shah Commission’s report on illegal extraction of iron ore.