PANAJI
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar accused the Manohar Parrikar government of concealing the negative response received from the Central government on amending the mining laws and to instead opt for a review petition in the Supreme Court.
Chodankar who addressed a press conference on Sunday afternoon demanded that Parrikar “apologize” to the mining dependents whom he and the BJP party have been deceiving for the past 11 months. He also demanded that Parrikar resign as Chief Minister.
The GPCC chief alleged that two letters written to the State by the Centre earlier last week had ruled out the Centre enacting amendments to either the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act or the Goa, Daman and Diu (Abolition of Concession and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987, and advised the Goa government to opt for a review petition before the Supreme Court.
“I have credible information that the Centre has written two letters stating that amending the laws or issuing Ordinance is not possible. One letter is from the Mines Ministry and the other from the PMO itself and the Goa government is advised to go for a review petition in the Supreme Court,” Chodankar said. He said, Parrikar should apologize to the mining dependents who have been deceived for the last several months with the false hope that the Centre will amend the laws to bypass the Supreme Court order of February 2018 for the resumption of operations in the sector.
Chodankar said Parrikar and the BJP have been following the same philosophy - bluff the people but garner their votes at every election - since 2012 when the Supreme Court first banned mining in the State.
Chodankar also took potshots at the three MPs - Union Ayush Minister Shripad Naik, Narendra Sawaikar and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar - who he said were unable to even organise an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the mining dependents.
