CM, Guv have already decided on Lokayukya report: ex-Goa CM

Panaji, Nov 5 (SocialNews.XYZ) A day after the Bombay High Court issued notice to the Goa government over a Lokayukta report, which exposed irregularities in the renewal of 88 iron ore mining leases, former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that Goa Governor and Chief Minister had already taken a decision to reject the report.

Parsekar, along with top bureaucrats have been indicted by the Goa Lokayukta in its report earlier this year. The report was rejected by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and then Governor Satya Pal Malik, but it came under the spotlight on Wednesday, after the Bombay High Court bench in Goa, issued notices to state government and Raj Bhavan, which was hearing a writ petition challenging the rejection of the report by the two designated authorities.

"The Governor and CM as designated authorities have taken a decision. This is a democracy, any one can challenge an order," Parsekar told reporters.

In January this year, then Goa Lokayukta PK Mishra had directed that the state government should order a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the illegal renewal of 88 mining leases in 2015, by then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and other officials.

Two key officials who were indicted in Goa Lokayukta P.K. Mishra's report were Pawan Kumar Sain, a former Mines Secretary and Prasanna Acharya, a former Director Mining and Geology department Prasanna Acharya.

Under the Goa Lokayukta Act 2011, the government can either accept or reject the anti-corruption ombudsman's report within three months.

The Lokayukta report had followed a complaint by Goa Foundation, which had filed a complaint before the Lokayukta alleging that the trio, through illegal second renewal of 88 mining leases had allegedly defrauded the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 1.44 lakh crore.

Source: IANS