The Chief Minister should stop misleading the state on status of mining eases, by creating a fog like situation in a Delhi winter, where the road ahead is not seen but figured. Mr Parrikar feels- or at least wants the state to feel- that there are two categories of mining leases, existing and operational and non-existing. Moreover the CM’s plans to cushion the impact of the Prime Minister’s clear indication that leases have to be auctioned, by saying that this applies only to new leases, won’t really work or hold.
The Prime Minister is giving implicit signals that he wants to bring in new players to start mining in Goa and break the hegemony of local established players by auctioning leases, and the Chief Minister needs the balancing skills of a trapeze artist to manage pressure and expectations from Goa’s mining sector on one hand and the Prime Minister’s road map on the other, which are at loggerheads
Notwithstanding what the Chief Minster’s own interpretation is, the Supreme Court’s April judgment in writ petition 435 that all leases after November 1, 2014, that deemed mining leases of lessees in Goa had expired on November 22, 1987, and the maximum period (20 years) of renewal of the deemed mining leases had also expired, and hence mining by lessees after November 22, 2007, was illegal. The Goa Chief minister is splitting hairs stating that the leases were not illegal, only mining activity in them is illegal. Not surprisingly, no one has taken this view, least of all the Supreme Court. Therefore if this is the Supreme Court’s position, then there the following remark of the Chief Minster on Saturday is aimed to create confusion, not clarity.
The CM said “If tomorrow, the government takes a call to grant these (remaining leases beyond the 27 odd which are up for renewal) leases, then they would be auctioned,” he said, adding that this route is not valid for leases which are operating. The Chief Minister said that while for coal allocation, the centre has decided to follow auctioning route, Goa government cannot do the same for the operational mining leases, as Supreme Court has not termed the allocation of iron ore mining leases as illegal but their operation post 2007 as illegal.
This is a jaundiced interpretation of the order. The CM is trying to resurrect leases that have “expired”. It cannot happen. The Supreme Court has allowed the resumption of mining in Goa on a clean slate and the Prime Minister has told the Chief Minister that the state government policy on lease renewals should be in sync with the Union government’s policies. The revised guidelines of the Ministry of Mines for processing of Mineral concessions issued on October 31 has referred to Supreme Court judgments in several landmark cases related to minerals and mining like Samatha, Sandur and Coal block allocations. The coal block judgment and the one on 2G have clearly laid down the auctioning route, while the Sandur judgment stressed on the need to follow the MMDR act. While both Mr Parrikar and the mining companies in Goa will argue that there is no provision for auctioning in the MMDR Act, the rider here is that this is the position as of today. The MMDR Act itself is up for amendment and will be placed in Parliament on November 27. It is very likely that the act itself will pave the way for granting of leases in manner which is most beneficial to the state, which for practical purposes will be the auctioning route.
The Chief Minister’s announcement that in future leases will be auctioned, immediately after he has met Prime Minister Modi, assumes significance because the Prime Minister is clear that minerals have to fetch the highest price for the state and should therefore be exploited only by the highest bidder.
In the light of this the only cushion that the state has- the High Court order allowing the “renewal of 27 leases”, may not quite be a cushion for long with the order challenged by Goa Foundation in the Supreme Court.
Goa therefore has its task cut out. It’s actually non relevant mining policy of September 2013 with its new policy of granting leases in October 2014, where it has discarded the auctioning route, taking the cover of the High Court order, cannot be integrated with the national mining policy.
Goa therefore, will be forced to open up its mining to have a level playing field and this could definitely pave the way for non state companies, including a very powerful player from Modi’s home state Gujarat, to take a grand entry.
And here the Chief Minister has very little choice.
