ADV YATISH NAIK
PANAJI
The mining industry has been a major economic contributor to the State of Goa since the pre-liberation times, both in terms of providing employment to the people as well as an economic activity resulting into revenue generation for the State treasury.
While this has been the history and the reality of Goa’s mining industry, dark clouds began to hover on this economic activity since Manohar Parrikar’s days as PAC chairman when he led some high decibel campaign in the name of ‘alleged illegal mining’.
While Parrikar continued his tirade in the run up to 2012 Assembly elections and famously declared that it was he who stopped mining activity in Goa much prior to the Court order while speaking in a Television interview, the latest salvo by Parrikar’s cabinet colleague Nilesh Cabral in stating that
Parrikar’s allegations of illegal mining were only a political stunt has only raised several pertinent questions as regards the veracity of those allegations.
While the BJP-led government which assumed the reigns of the State since 2012 has failed till date in pointing out the concrete figures of the so-called illegal mining, Cabral’s statement bursts that balloon which Parrikar blew for obvious political reasons.
There is no doubt that Goa needs to foster, promote and nurture only sustainable mining within the legal scope and realm. This premise is uncontroverted and accepted by all. The issue which each of us needs to understand is that -- should we for the sake of petty politics shoot at Goa’s economy at its roots?
While I do not wish to give a political flavor to this article, I am compelled to state a few facts as a chronological sequence for the sake of record.
Since the February 7, 2018 Judgment of the Supreme Court, Goa’s mining industry and its allied activities have come to a grinding halt thereby rendering thousands of direct and indirect dependents on this industry jobless.
The closure of mining activity has also admittedly affected the State’s revenues to its detriment. With BJP-led government in saddle both at the State and Centre, the challenge before them is to find a legally sustainable way to ensure the continuance of Goa’s mining economy.
Soon after the pronouncement of the said Judgment by the apex court the Chief Minister has been ill. During his first visit to US owing to treatment he had constituted a so-called Cabinet Advisory Committee comprising of Sudin Dhavalikar, Vijai Sardesai and Francis D’souza.
While Parrikar shied in
handing over the charge of Chief Ministership to any of his cabinet colleagues, he constituted the self-styled CAC only to further confuse the people on the prospective course which the Government was pondering over only to be a resultant damp squib.
While Dhavalikar spoke of filing a review petition, Sardesai spoke of an ordinance interjected with public articulation of Nilesh Cabral as regards filing an intervention application.
Thus while various voices emerged from within the State government on the possible course to solve this issue, the deliberate confusion appears to be the hallmark of the BJP governments both at the Center and the State which has pushed Goa’s mining dependents to the brink of uncertainty.
A lot of water has flown down the river Mandovi but the State and the Central governments appear to be marooned without any concrete idea and a firm action plan to restart mining by finding a legally sustainable solution to ensure the continuance of Goa’s mining economy.
It needs to be noted that while the Congress has publicly promised all possible support to the governments both at the State and Centre to bring about a legally sustainable solution to the Goa’s mining issue in acknowledgment of mining activities contribution to the growth of Goa’s economy, the State Government has miserably failed to convince the snoring Modi-led government to study Goa’s mining case in the right perspective and to bring about a legally sustainable solution.
The Modi-led government which in deep slumber on this issue has also failed to articulate the legally sustainable solution in that regard with the prime minister not finding the need to even meet Goa government’s delegation until the last week on the issue. While the delegation comprising of Goa’s three MPs, the Speaker and the Prime Minister served as a photo opportunity, no solution has yet been articulated in concrete terms by Modi vis-a-vis this issue.
While on earlier occasions the State delegations have meet Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Mines Minister Tomar and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Nipendra Mishra, no solutions have came there.
While Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Nitin Gadkari have been visiting our State on numerous occasions since the closure of the our mining industry, they have only been promising solutions with no concrete word of promise.
BJP national President Amit Shah in his address to the BJP booth workers of South Goa via video conferencing and in his address to the booth workers of North Goa at the Bambolim stadium too failed in speaking out his government’s proposed solution in concrete terms on this issue.
In view of the importance of the mining to Goa’s economy it is incumbent for the State and the Centre to bring about a legally sustainable solution on this issue. Infact, as has been revealed by the Economic Survey 2018-19 tabled in the State Assembly, the State’s economy has suffered due to
the meager contribution from mining industry. While the government in the State through its constituents and components have been speaking in different voices and tunes on this subject, it is high time this government realises the seriousness of the issue.
The failure of the State Government and the Central Government to bring about a firm legally sustainable solution is reflective of the indecisiveness of the governments at the helm. The governments at the State and the Centre are answerable to the people and therefore they must reveal to the people as to the solution which they propose to adopt to solve this issue. A year has passed by
since the apex court has pronounced the said Judgment and therefore its high time that the State and the Central government speak meaningfully.
The challenge before both the governments is to reveal their legally sustainable solution to mining. Its high time that Modi and Parrikar realise that a solution to this issue which was long over due and which they have failed to conceive, envisage and devise in concrete terms till date cannot be lingered any further... only for the sake of Goa.
HOW GOA’S MINING ISSUE WAS SNUBBED BY CENTRE
