Senior Congress leader and former Minister Niranjan Patnaik has reiterated his demand for immediate and comprehensive investigation by the CBI into the mining scam.
“Why is Naveen babu silent on the subjectIJ Is it that he does not agree with the Shah Commission findings that large scale irregularities and revenue loss took place under his watch as the Chief Minister for the last 15 yearsIJ Who is he trying to protectIJ” he asked in a Press release.
The former PCC president, who has been consistently demanding CBI investigation, said that the CBI inquiry must go beyond the lease holders.
“The lease holders are known legal entities and irregularities committed by them can be computed and accountability fixed, as has been rightly done by the Shah Commission. If they have evaded taxes on income or royalty, the amount of evasion can be calculated to a large extent and recovered with penal interest as per procedures, though some amount would still be difficult to account for. But, what about mining outside lease hold areas and relinquished or abandoned minesIJ All the entities involved in such illegal mining, as juxtaposed to irregular mining by known legal leaseholders, are remaining nameless and faceless in discussions after the Shah Commission report was brought to public light in the media. They have neither paid any royalty nor any income tax and there is no way they can be held accountable under either the Income Tax Act or under the Mining Rules. They are known in the public as ‘mining mafia’ and have not come under the scrutiny of the Shah Commission. Some of these individuals were arrested by the State police. But, now they are all on bail and happily enjoying their ill-gotten wealth generated by simple theft of iron ore. The ‘ring leaders’ are actively funding political parties and hoping to play a big role in the next general elections,” he said.
The iron ore stolen by the mining mafia may be close to `1 lakh crore and therefore, the CBI must investigate them as well and start a process of confiscation of all these wealth, he demanded, adding that the State Government must bring an ordinance to confiscate the wealth of the mining mafia.