AN Joshi
1n 1999, one of my seniors from IIT Chennai called and asked if I would like to attend a meeting of IIT alumni in Panaji. I immediately agreed and that is where I met many IIT-ians working in Goa. One of them was of course Parrikar. We immediately bonded because we belonged to the same batch (1978) of IIT, though I am from Kharagpur.
After that we met during our IIT alumni meetings. I specially remember the meeting that was called to greet him on becoming Chief Minister in 2000. When I asked him why he does not think of calling McKinsey who will be happy to draw out a 15 year plan for Goa’s development, he laughed aloud jokingly said that he is not sure if his government will last for six months, than how can he plan for 15 years.
As leader of opposition he called me twice to his chamber to discuss the Environment clearances granted by MOEF to Mining companies in Goa. He was very unhappy with problems created by trucks carrying ore and hundreds of entities becoming traders.
In 2010 my company shifted me from head of Marketing to head and start the PR department of the company. That is when my interactions with him became regular and they continued even when he became Defense Minister.
On coming to power with good majority he immediately took action against traders in mining. He also suspended mining with clear thought that he will weed out illegals and start legal mining on a clean slate in six months. He had his job cut out.
Later when the Supreme Court suspended mining activities he was pained and worked tirelesslyfor its resumption. He was aware of the suffering of dependents on mining industry in Goa. In one of the TV shows he expressed his displeasure over stoppage of mining. He said “to kill a rat in the house one does not break the house”.
When he saw IBM report of increasing iron ore reserves of Goa, he realized that Goa’s reserves can be two or three times more than declared by IBM. He talked of bigger mining pits and asked different leaseholders to come together for large pit mining. When I requested him to ask mining companies to build their own roads, he objected.
He said the state will build separate “mining transport corridors” and mining companies will pay for using those corridors. He always thought of different ways of transportation to reduce dust pollution caused but had realized that high capacity trucks owned by cooperatives of current truck owners can only reduce the density of traffic and dust pollution. In fact, he had once travelled to Delhi as Chief Minister in 2014 to talk at FICCI meeting and spelt out his dreams for sustainable mining in Goa.
When he was Chief Minister, he continuously worked towards restart of mining operations. He got all leases surveyed through central Government-approved independent surveyors. He changed Goa’s land revenue code to regularize the use of ‘out of the lease’ land by Goa’s leaseholders over last 50 years. Changed Indian Stamp Act in 2015 and in the process earned huge revenue for State of Goa.
He used a novel approach of enquiry by a team of chartered accountants. Even after going to Delhi, he used to personally follow up with different ministers for restart of mining. Once in his house in Delhi, I said that we cannot work on life cycle cost of mining the way defense forces work. He was immediately interested in listening to what I meant.
Later, I got to know that he had already started his research on life cycle costing. He could finish a book in a day or two and remember everything. It is well known that recently he had written a letter to PMO from his bed in AIIMS for restarting of mining operations in Goa and he has even referred to the life-cycle cost that Goa is paying because of closure of mining.
Once in his Defence Ministry cabin, in South Block in Delhi, he introduced me to some ministers and bureaucrats and also appreciated that how Goan mining company did not remove workers despite months of mines closure. That shows how he is glued to the matters related to Goa. He always used to think of the welfare of Goans, for whom he worked tirelessly.
Last, I got to personally meet him was at defense related FINS Conference in 2017 where I was volunteering. I observed that he had thinned down quite a bit. I even told him that something was very wrong. But as usual he laughed it off saying “I do not know how sugar affects different people”. It was very painful to have his last Darshan on Tuesday.
He was a Karma Yogi and real tribute to him will be by completing all the unfinished work and dreams he had for Goa. As I am a mining professional and who knew him, I would say that one of his unfulfilled dream was to re-start mining in Goa. On technical terms as an engineer, he dreamt about a sustainable mining in Goa which could be made possible through large pit mining, separate mining transport corridor and large truck transport owned by truck owner cooperatives. Efforts should be made by every one in Goa and otherwise for restart the mining and fulfill his
dream.
