the goan I network
PANAJI
A day after a few MLAs claimed that they couldn’t make it for the meeting on mining issue called by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday, five MLAs from the mining belt, including Deepak Prabhu Pauskar, were present for the meet on Friday.
In a statement to the media, the Chief Minister’s office has said that, “all possible options for the resumption of mining activity in the state are being evaluated.”
“The CM will in the near future also meet MLAs who were unavailable for today’s meeting on account of being out of the state. CM has been holding regular consultative meetings with all concerned on mining issue in the state,” the Chief Minister’s office said in a statement.
Assembly Speaker and Sankhali MLA Pramod Sawant, Bicholim MLA Rajesh Patnekar, Maem MLA Pravin Zantye and Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar were present.
The Chief Minister will shortly hold a joint meeting of all mining concerned MLAs to arrive at a consensus after which the matter will be taken up with Government of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Thursday’s meeting was attended only by Pauskar as other MLAs claimed that they were unable to be present on account of various reasons including some of them being outside the state.
On Thursday the Chief Minister met members of the GMOEA and was scheduled to meet the MLAs to represent the mining-affected talukas. However, the MLAs couldn’t agree to meet on Thursday and instead chose to meet on Friday.
The options before the government were of granting an extension of the leases through an ordinance, resuming mining in Goa through a government-run corporation and finally through an auction of the leases.
When Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was away, several delegations visited Delhi on resolving the mining imbroglio, however, Parrikar will once again visit Delhi to brief the Prime Minister over the mining situation in the state.
