'I held up 600 licences, sought a stop to new leases'

“Six hundred prospecting licences are pending and were not approved because I put my foot down and told the Centre to withhold them. In February 2010 I wrote to Jairam Ramesh who was then minister for environment and forests and asked him to impose a moratorium on new mining leases in Goa.

I also went out of my way to get a sanctioned lease cancelled. Which other chief minister has done this?” he told Devika Sequeira of Deccan Herald’s Sunday Spotlight.

Kamat said last year the state government also issued a notification asking the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) and the state-run Panaji Port not to allow iron ore to be shipped out unless the exporter produced an NOC from the directorate of mines to ensure its legality and source. “MPT being under the Centre did not comply till February this year,” he says.

As for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that will be submitted to the Goa assembly next week by BJP leader Manohar Parrikar, the Congress is most likely to brush it off as politically motivated. “That’s just a normal report. The government will respond to the PAC,” Kamat said.

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