Justice M. B. Shah Commission: mining companies on radar.

In the year 2010, the Government of India (GOI) set up a commission headed by Justice M. B. Shah with the purpose to look into the illegal mining of iron ore and manganese (the commission was names as Justice M. B. Shah Commission of Inquiry for Illegal Mining of Iron Ore and Manganese). 

The Commission was set up with following objectives:

1. to inquire into and determine the nature and extent of mining and trade and transportation, done illegally or without lawful authority, of iron ore and manganese ore, and the losses resulting therefrom; and to identify, as far as possible, the persons, firms, companies and others that are engaged in such mining, trade and transportation of iron ore and manganese ore, done illegally or without lawful authority;
2. to inquire into and determine the extent to which the management, regulatory and monitoring systems have failed to deter, prevent, detect and punish offences relating to mining, storage, transportation, trade and export of such ore, done illegally or without lawful authority, and the persons responsible for the same;
3. to inquire into the tampering of official records, including records relating to land and boundaries, to facilitate illegal mining and to identify, as far as possible, the persons responsible for such tampering; and
4. to inquire into the overall impact of such mining, trade, transportation and export, done illegally or without lawful authority, in terms of destruction of forest wealth, damage to the environment, prejudice to livelihood and other rights of tribal people, forest dwellers and other persons in the mined areas, and the financial losses caused to the Central and State Governments.

Report of the Commission.

It was required to submit the final report on or before July 16, 2012. However, the Union Cabinet had in July, 2012 decided to give it a one-year extension, given the voluminous data the Commission had to collect and compile on mining from seven states-Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh. In the month of October last year, Justice M B Shah had submitted his third and final report, which was mainly on the mining mafia menace in Goa.

Mining in Goa.

In April, 2012, Shah Commission submitted its 1st interim report on mining in Goa. It accused both the state and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) of allowing illegal mining in the state, putting the region’s environment and ecology at risk.

In response to the report, MoEF and the state suspended environmental clearances and operations of 93 of the 337 mining leases in Goa. About 55 per cent of the iron ore exported from India comes from Goa. The Shah Commission report was submitted to the Union Ministry of Mines (MoM) in April and was made public early-September.

The common illegalities the report points to are mining without licence, mining outside lease area and transporting minerals illegally. 

Mining in Odisha.

The 2014 report of the panel asked the ministry to consider the restrictions to ensure that future generations are "not required to import iron ore" and to crack down on illegal mining, after recommending the same steps for Karnataka and Goa. But the ministry of mines has rejected suggestions by a powerful government panel to ban exports of iron ore and limit output from the Odisha, dispelling fears the country`s top producer faced curbs similar to those imposed elsewhere. 

Bans in Karnataka and Goa, following the findings of the Shah Commission set up in 2010, have already slashed India`s exports of iron ore by about 85 percent, or 100 million tonnes, in the past two years, pushing the country from its 2011 ranking of No. 3 among world exporters to China.