the goan I network
PANAJI
In a scenario where the strategy to pursue amendments in the laws is yielding no favourable response from the Centre, a section of the Goa coalition government is warming up to the option of setting up a State-owned Corporation to initiate the process of early resumption of mining operations.
A senior political leader of the ruling coalition said the idea has taken seed in the decision-making echelons of the government due to the pressing need for resumption of operations to send a positive signal among the vast section of the population in Goa’s eastern mining belt ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
“The chances of winning the two Lok Sabha seats will get a boost. Those directly affected by the closure of mining have to be placated,” the leader who did not want to be identified at this stage said.
Issuing fresh leases through an auction process or the government operating the leases through a special purpose vehicle such as a State-owned Mining Corporation are the only options available under the current laws and directions of the Supreme Court.
The industry however has opposed the auction of leases route arguing that the possibility of outstation mining majors and mafias outbidding local industry captains and cornering the leases was high.
The State government led by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, however, has placed its faith in the third option - tweaking the mining laws in Parliament so as to validate the cancelled leases up to 2037 and circumvent the Supreme Court imposed stoppage of operations.
Mining in Goa came to a halt since March this year when the Supreme Court cancelled all leases after holding illegal the second renewal of 88 leases effected by the successive Parrikar and Laxmikant Parsekar governments in 2014-15.
The current Parrikar government however opted to pursue a path to resumption of the industry by seeking the Centre’s intervention to tweak the laws through an Ordinance to enhance the validity of leases for 50 years up to 2037, citing the State’s special case of the origin of leases to the colonial Portuguese regime.
The ordinance route was abandoned after the Union law ministry advised against it and the government is now pinning its hopes on an amendment to be passed in the Lok Sabha during the current winter session.
Also, the Goa legislative assembly had in August passed a resolution in this regard empowering Parrikar to pursue the demand with the Centre. The Opposition Congress had backed the move.
Weeks before he got immobilized by his ailment, Parrikar had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and formerly requested the changes in the Central mining laws.
Shiv Sena to raise mining issue in THE Parliament
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said his party would raise the mining issue in Lok Sabha and suggested a Goa bandh to highlight the issue
He terming Delhi as deaf and dumb with Prime Minister Narendra Modi unable to listen to the voices of agitating mining dependents
Raut met the mining dependents who were staging their dharna at the Ramleela Maidan for the second day and pledged his party’s support
AAP MP Sanjay Singh, Khalap, Sardinha, Vishwajeet, Churchill and others met the mining
dependents in Delhi
