the goan I network
PANAJI/BICHOLIM
A top Goa delegation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday met in Delhi with Union Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party national president Amit Shah in pursuit of a solution to the impasse in the mining industry.
Goa Speaker, Pramod Sawant, who was part of the delegation which met Tomar and Shah said, the Centre is on the job to find a legally tenable route to restart iron ore mining early.
Sawant, who along with State party chief and Rajya Sabha MP, Vinay Tendulkar and South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, met Shah and Tomar, claimed that the two leaders assured them that the Centre is “very keen” to resolve the issues and speedily restart mining activity in Goa.
Sawant said they apprised both Shah and Tomar about the hardships faced by mining dependents in Goa and the two Central leaders conceded the urgency to resolve it.
Sources said, the delegation made a strong pitch for tweaking the mining legislations through the Ordinance route. The Goa leaders told Shah and Tomar that a resolution plan for the crisis was suggested by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in a letter to both Tomar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in early August.
They pressed for the same which involves tweaking a central law which deals with mining leases in Goa so as to extend their vailidity to 2037 which will circumvent the need to auction leases mandated by the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Act.
Dr Sawant, meanwhile, claimed that both Shah and Tomar have assured them as soon as the file which is currently being vetted by the Central law department is cleared, the Central government will speed up the subsequent process.
Sawant said, the BJP-led coalition government is constantly pursuing the issue.
“They (state government) have highlighted the issue before the Central government and they are hopeful that instant steps to restart mining operations will be taken,” Sawant said.
The BJP leadership in Goa believes that securing a breakthrough to overcome the mining imbroglio is crucial for its prospects in both the Lok Sabha seats, elections for which are due in the first half
of 2019.
The party had also faced the same predicament in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when mining had come to grinding halt following the Supreme Court ban after the Shah Commission had revealed a massive Rs 35,000-crore scam invloving illegal mining.
The wily chief minister, however, had managed to turn the narrative in favour of the saffron party then by kick-starting a financial package for the mining dependents days ahead of the Code of Conduct coming into
force.
This time around, however, the party is handicapped with the Chief Minister in a precarious health condition coping with pancreatic cancer. The State leadership of the saffron party is therefore heavily banking on the Central leadership to come up with a resolution and save the day for it in time to face the Lok Sabha elections.
