‘Panaji port used as gateway for exporting illegal ore'

The State-run Panaji Minor Port could have served as a ‘gateway' to export a huge amount of illegal iron ore from the State, the Chairman of the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) revealed and said the operations at the port must be closed.

In a letter written to the State Chief Secretary, the MPT Chairman, Mr P. Mara Pandiyan, has said that almost five million tonnes of unaccounted ore was exported through this port during the last financial year.

He appealed to the State Government to suspend the operations at the port in “national interest” to prevent plunder of resources.

Mr Pandiyan's letter comes in the backdrop of Mr Justice M.B. Shah Commission's inquiry into alleged illegal mining in the State, which began this week.

“It is very important that this kind of rampant unaccounted illegal mining as well as export has to be stopped,” Mr Pandiyan said in his letter pointing out that the whole responsibility of Panaji Port rests with the State Government.

The letter reads: “It is estimated that about 5 million tonnes have been exported through Panaji Port as unaccounted iron ore. This has caused bleeding of royalty to state exchequer and the people involved in this operation seemed to have flouted all norms.”

He stated that the port does not have any berth nor any surveillance mechanism to monitor the quantity of ore exported and exporters have utilised the lax vigilance to ship millions of tonnes of illegally extracted iron ore.

MPT, a major port in the State, is located in Vasco, while the minor port is in the State capital.

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