PANJIM: Goa Foundation (GF) has proposed that Inter-generational Equity should be the core of the new National Mineral Policy (NMP), which is currently being drafted. It will present its views on this to the Dr KV Rao Committee, constituted by the Union Mines Ministry.
GF, the petitioner before the Supreme Court in the illegal mining case, has been invited to present its view before the Committee at its meeting on Sept 26.
“We will remind the KV Rao Committee that the current review of the National Mineral Policy gives us a unique opportunity to leapfrog the rest of the world and institute a more moral mining policy, with state of the art controls and best practices in extraction,” GF Director Claude Alvares said.
In its representation to the Committee, GF has recommended that since mining is the sale of minerals, the people (and not miners) must get the full value when sold, and everything that is received is saved for future generations through special funds and since the minerals and the fund belong to the people, any real income should be distributed equally to all as a right of ownership, commons dividend.
“The GF advocates that Inter-generational Equity should be at the heart of the new National Mineral Policy. Natural resources are our shared inheritance. It is our duty to protect our inheritance for future generations,” Alvares said.
He pointed out in his representation that in Goa alone, we were receiving less than five percent of the value of the minerals that have been extracted and sold by miners. “Similar large losses to state exchequers have been found across India for iron ore, coal, oil and gas and public lands,” Alvares stated.
The green activist said that 2015 MMDR Amendment, which requires leases to be granted only through auction, improves the situation somewhat, but continues the practice of facilitating the single largest transfer of wealth from the people of the country to miners.
GF research director Rahul Basu said the country’s biggest corruption scandals revolve around natural resources. “This is visibly corrupting our democracy. We hope the Committee takes this opportunity to safeguard our resources for our children. Our children will hold us responsible,” he said.
The NMP 2008 is being revisited following the Supreme Court’s verdict of August 2, 2017 in regards to illegal mining in Orissa.
