The Goan: Aren’t you opening yourself for court stricturesreportedly saying you have strong objections to court rulings which create a mess.What are you aiming at?
Manohar Parrikar: I did not say anything against the courts.But I am also clear that courts cannot be running governments. Interference ofcourts sometimes creates a mess and this has happened before. Refer to ArunShourie’s book on the subject as well as other cases. Governance is my domain.Making laws is my jurisdiction. The courts cannot tell me how to run mygovernment. Even on buffer zones, is there any legislation barring courtorders. Is this how a country runs?
TG: But you can’t avoid the court now. What is your strategyin court to restart mining?
MP: What I do believe is that we have an opportunity to makea strong case in court that, my government has already begun taking correctivemeasure to clean up mining in Goa. The Shah Commission, as well as the CEC,have and will report on what existed whereas my government is in a position tostate and execute measures that will eradicate illegalities and punish thoseresponsible. There is a difference between Goa and Karnataka. Here is agovernment change. We stopped mining before the centre or the courts did.
TG: Despite clearly wanting to be on top as the executivehead of the state, don’t you admit that the solution to the mining issue hasgone out of your hands completely?
MP: Yes it is not completely in my hands, though I do notaccept that it has gone out of my hands. The state government’s stand in courtis going to be all important for mining to start again, but I reiterate thatgovernments should take executive decisions, not the judiciary.
TG: But do you have a time frame or is it open ended?
MP: Once we present our case, and then continue to push it,we are confident of getting positive results by six months
TG: Are you saying mining can start in Goa in six months?
MP: I’m confident of convincing the courts by that time
TG: Coming to the state’s stand on buffer zones, why did youreject your Forest and Environment Minister’s demand that there should be a twokm buffer zone. Her stand was that this is a minimum breather required toprotect forests
MP: I told Alina (Environment Minister Alina Saldanha) thatshe should do her duty and make the recommendation. Her point was noted. But acabinet decision is a collective one. The minutes of the meetings make it veryclear why we opted for 1 kilometre.
TG: You have named Subhash Shirodkar, Pratapsingh Rane,Digambar Kamat and Joaquim Alemao of being involved in illegal mining. Do youhave evidence?
MP: Yes, there is enough information and evidence to make thischarge. I will prove it. There is enough in the Shah Commission report tosupport this too.
TG: How badly has the loss of revenue from mining hit thestate?
MP: There is an impact but I know how to overcome it. We arelosing about Rs 60 crores a month and indirectly losing more because theeconomy has been hit, but I’m meeting my Rs 355 odd crores monthly expenditure.
TG: By borrowing to pay salaries?
MP: No you can’t say, we are borrowing to pay salaries. Thisis planned borrowing needed to make up a bit of the shortfall, even if there wasincome generated from mining. We have budgeted for Rs 850 crore borrowing andhave borrowed Rs 500 crores. We will borrow Rs 150 crores each in January andin Feb-March. At the same time we will raise Rs 100 crores from taxes on dieseland another Rs 100 crores on toll taxes.
The Goan point of view: Rs 850 crores is budgeted forborrowing but here the state is stretching itself. The mining revenue of Rs 950crores in royalty would have allowed it to borrow less for infrastructureprojects in PWD and Irrigation where most of the borrowing are pumped in
