By IANS,
Panaji: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Monday its leaders would meet President Pratibha Patil to demand a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into Goa’s illegal mining scam.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji, party spokesperson Rajendra Arlekar said that party president Nitin Gadkari would lead a delegation of senior party leaders to Rashtrapati Bhavan Nov 3 to demand an SIT probe headed by a Supreme Court judge.
“The delegation will be led by Gadkari-ji, head of BJP’s scam expose committee Kirit Sommaiya, Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar and state party president Laxmikant Parsenkar,” said Arlekar, a former state president.
“Our demands include appointment of a Special Investigation Team headed by a Supreme Court judge. The team should have experts who know mining and forest laws and police officials who can probe criminal and conspiratorial angles to Goa’s Rs.25,000 crore mining scam,” Arlekar said.
He said that the party was satisfied with the manner in which the Justice M.B. Shah Commission was probing the illegal mining scam in Goa and the rest of India, but added that the panel was only a recommendatory authority and could not take offenders to task.
Central BJP leaders have alleged that several cabinet ministers, including Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, are involved in the Rs.25,000 crore mining scam, which they have billed as the biggest mining scandal in the country.
Goa exported 54 million tonnes of iron ore in the last fiscal from its nearly 100 operational open cast iron ore mines.