the goan I network
PANAJI
After a gap of nearly a year, Goa is likely see action in the mining sector with the State government set to e-auction 5.34 million tonnes of iron ore of varied grades on August 22.
The e-auction is expected to earn the cash-strapped State government an estimated revenue of at least Rs 600-crores through the sale of iron ore at current international prices.
The subsequent transportation of the ore and its trading either in the domestic steel industry or in the export markets could spur activity in the sector which has been devoid of any action for almost a year when the government conducted the last e-auction in July 2018.All activity in the mining sector came to a standstill in mid-March 2018 after the Supreme Court cancelled some 88 mining leases while holding their renewals by the State government done in 2014-15 illegal, in a judgement it passed in February that year.
The Apex court had also ordered complete halt to mining and all related activity including transportation by March 15.
Earlier in 2012 too, the Supreme Court had put the brakes on Goa’s mining industry following the explosive Shah Commission report which had reported a massive illegal mining scam. In that judgement, the Apex Court had also declared the extracted ore lying in mining lease areas, at barge loading jetties and at the storage area of the Mormugao port to belong to the State.
It also directed the State to estimate the quantity of this iron ore, sell it through e-auction and retain the revenues earned in the State exchequer.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, had earlier this week announced in the Goa legislative assembly that the government would take steps to revive the mining industry post this year’s monsoon. He had also assured that procedures for e-auctioning of the stacked iron ore belonging to the State government would be completed soon and e-auctioned.
On the issue of actual mining activities, the Sawant-led government is banking on re-activating leases that are not covered by the February 2018 judgement of the Supreme Court. It is also awaiting the outcome of a pending petition in the Supreme Court, jointly filed by multiple mining companies challenging the abolition of the Portuguese era mining concessions and their conversion into leases under the Goa Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Abolition and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987.
In addition, Sawant is also in dialogue with the Centre to assist in early resolution of the mining legal tangle and a Group of Ministers headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been constituted for the purpose.
