On Sunday, TOI reported that Ashok Chavan, as mining minister in 2008, had leased out forest land in the eco-sensitive Yavatmal region for mining to his colleagues. It is now learnt that he blatantly disregarded the Congress beneficiaries' poor creditworthiness and their business objectives.
Atul Thakre, son of present state Congress president Manikrao Thakre, and Pravin Kasawar, son of local Congress MLA Vamanrao Kasawar, who had a financial standing of only a few lakhs, bagged the mining licences while Lloyds Steel, with a share capital of Rs 425 crore, and Maharashtra State Mining Corporation, with a financial standing of Rs 500 crore, were shown the door.
What was also shocking is that Chavan favoured the duo to trade in ore even as several established companies wanted the mines for captive purpose.
The difference in the business objectives arises from the age-old argument of development versus conservation.
The thumb-rule of mining is that preference must be given to captive use — wherein a company not just mines the ore, but also cleans it, and processes it for end use, thus generating employment in the under-developed forest regions. Trading, as the term suggests, is not labour intensive and allows the company to simply mine the ore and sell it.
The 442-acre tract, rich in limestone and dolomite reserves, in Dongargaon of Wani tehsil in Yavatmal, was offered by the state on lease in 2008 when Chavan was holding the industries and mining portfolio. An RTI filed by Vilas Wankhede in October 2009 revealed that Thakre and Kasawar produced solvency certificates of just Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh, respectively.
In his application, Kasawar stated that the mineral would be used for trading. On the other hand, Ambuja Cement, if it was awarded the lease, had planned on investing Rs 1,250 crore in setting up 3 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) cement plants.
Despite this, Chavan favoured the application of Thakre, who was given 262 acres, while Pravin was given 105 acres. Another 70 acres were cleared for Latif Udeem Khanla, a party worker.
Chavan's logic was that he wanted to encourage budding ''small entrepreneurs'', as against large firms ''that had either been granted mineral concessions in the state or were competent to procure minerals from other sources''.
But in another case, Kolkata-based Emami Cement Limited lost out because Chavan stated that this was a ''newly formed company''. A local mining engineer too applied for the mining lease, but his application was eliminated because ''the applicant is a mining (unemployed) engineer''.
It is again ambiguous why Chavan rejected four applications filed by mining engineers from Nagpur.
The green stretch of government land in Dongargaon, worth approximately Rs 88 crore, is still reserved as forest land, but shockingly, the mining application moved to the ministry of environment & forests (which is yet to clear it) claims the land is barren and not reserved.
The rules, said Sudhir Mungantiwar, BJP state president and an applicant for the mining lease, ''have not been followed by Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, preferred applications of those wanting to set up companies for captive purpose, over those wanting to use the ore for trading. I have raised this issue often, yet the application was sent to MoEF for clearance".
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