State BJP Spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo today said that JPCC chief Dr Ajoy Kumar either doesn’t know facts or he believes in saying baseless things just like Congress president Rahul Gandhi. If Congress doesn’t have any issue it should be alert while giving statements on judicial matters, he said.
Shahdeo said that several cases of Shah Brothers mining lease were pending across the country. At first the Supreme Court, in the case of Goa Foundation, decided that after first renewal of lease in the matters of subsequent renewals, auto expansion will not be effective as per the provisions of Mineral Consession Rules.
Hence not only in Shah Brothers, but in other cases too penalty was demanded as per the Goa Foundation decision.
In case of Shah Brothers, the imposed penalty was of Rs 1,150 crores. The penalty was challenged in the Mining Tribunal by Shah Brothers and other lessees. Even as the matter was pending with the Tribunal, an amendment was made in the Central MMRD Act and it was provisioned that mining lease issues, which are pending with the state government and have not been cancelled be considered to have been automatically extended for next 50 years, but the lessees will have to follow all lease rules. The penalty of Rs 1,150 crore was brought down to Rs 250 crore in pursuance of the direction of the Supreme Court and the Mining Tribunal, Shahdeo said.
The BJP spokesperson refuted Dr Kumar’s allegation saying there was no connivance or motive to help anyone, but the change was effected as per Law. He asked Dr Kumar not to issue baseless allegations and then vanish from Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, retorting to JVM chief Babulal Marandi’s allegations against the Government of Rs 500 crore scam, Shahdeo said that the JVM leader has a long history of making false allegations. He said that when there was Arjun Munda led government in the State, Marandi had levelled serious corruption charges against the government, which was never proved. He said that few months back Marandi had levelled horse trading charges against BJP and also released a letter, which could not be proved either.