Panaji, May 10 (IANS) The Goa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday expressed concern at several office bearers of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a junior partner in the Congress-led ruling alliance in the state, being hauled up by the authorities for illegal mining.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, BJP general secretary Rajendra Arlekar said that the inability of police to file a criminal complaint on the directions of a local court against NCP national secretary Jitendra Deshprabhu in an illegal mining case showed that they too were hand in glove with the mining mafia.

"It is indeed disturbing to find that this trend of NCP leaders involved in illegal mining is increasing," said Arlekar, a former state BJP president.

Deshprabhu has already been fined Rs.1.72 crore by the state mining department for illegally extracting nearly 50,000 tonnes of bauxite from a mine, located in his property at Korgao village in Pernem, some 25 km from here.

On Saturday, a local trial court ordered police to file a first information report (FIR) against Deshprabhu, Mines Director Arvind Lolienkar and the chairman of the state pollution control board for their inability to curb illegal mining.

"Police are not filing an FIR, it has been more than 24 hours. They are hand in glove with the mining mafia," Arlekar said.

Deshprabhu is not the only senior NCP office bearer allegedly involved in illegal mining.

The NCP's state coordinator Prafulla Hede, a key aide of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, has also been booked for illegal mining by the Goa government.

Hede's firm has been booked by the state forest department for illegal mining near the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, located 80 km from here.

According to data submitted in the monsoon session of the Goa assembly last year, ore worth Rs.4,000 crore was illegally mined and exported - mainly to China, Japan and Romania.

Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar of the BJP has said that nearly 18 percent of Goa's total 45 million mining output comprises illegally mined ore. He has also accused Chief Minister Digamber Kamat and several cabinet ministers of being hand in glove with the illegal mining mafia.

The Goa Mineral Ore Exporters' Association, a group of ore exporters based in Goa, has also raised the issue of illegal mining on several occasions.