Panaji, Oct 30 (IANS): With the Goa assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on illegal mining mired in legislative red tape, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to come out with its own report, which promises "to bare the roots of illegal mining.
Speaking to reporters here Sunday, Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar said that the report was in the last stage of compilation and had enough punch to topple the Congress-led coalition government in Goa because of the involvement of several ministers in the mining scam, which he has pegged at Rs.25,000 crore.
"Iron ore worth Rs.25,000 crore has been illegally extracted and sent from Goa during last five years," said Parrikar, who headed the PAC probe into illegal mining in Goa.
"We are painstakingly collecting every bit of evidence so that our report can stand scrutiny," he said, adding that the party was not against legal mining in Goa.
"What might happen is that because of the illegal mining industry and the government's inability to arrest illegal ore extraction and export, the entire industry is painted with the same brush. Illegal mining might lead to the end of legal mining in Goa, if it is not curbed," he said.
Central BJP leaders have said that several cabinet ministers, including Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, are involved in the scam, which they have billed as the biggest mining scandal in the country.
Goa exported 54 million tons of iron ore in the last fiscal from its nearly 100 operational open cast iron ore mines.