Goa govt told to furnish data on iron ore exported via MPT

Armed with a report prepared by the former Karnataka Lokayukta on illegal mining, the Ministry of Mines has asked the Goa government to furnish data on the allegations that the Mormugao Port Trust was exporting iron ore even after the state banned the activity.

Officials in the State Mines and Geology Department told PTI that the ministry, in a recent meeting in Delhi, asked the Goa government "to furnish details on the Karnataka ore exported through the state during the last five years".

The ministry also asked the state officials to produce data on the quantum of Karnataka ore allegedly used for blending with local low-grade ore during the last five years.

The State Mines and Geology department will have to submit data for the years from 2005, when demand in the Chinese market boosted iron ore exports, till the year 2011, when the mining scam came to the light.

Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, who had blown the lid off the scam, claimed that 45 lakh tonnes of high grade ore was exported through Goa's Mormugao Port Trust (MPT).

The investigations pointed out that the ore was brought from Karnataka in the guise of blending it with local low-grade ore, which is non-consumable by the steel industry, and in fact exported through the port even though Karnataka had banned exports.

The Lokayukta report also questioned the export of high grade ore, with as much as 64% Fe content, from the Goa port, when the state does not have such a kind of ore. Justice Santosh Hegde told PTI that local authorities were involved in the illegalities.

The Ministry of Mines, which had taken up the matter seriously, also decided to ask the Railways Ministry to give details of the ore brought by wagon from Karnataka to Goa.

"The Indian Bureau of mines (IBM) would record the data," the officials added.