Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, finds himself in the centre of the investigations and will add one more legal battle to his kitty of mounting legal cases, after the charge sheet in the main mining case has been filed.
SIT is further investigating total extraction of iron ore by conducting a detail survey with the help of Mines Department for ascertaining the exact extraction of iron ore.
While the legal battle will be fought in the courtroom and Digambar Kamat will be the focus in the trial and further investigations it is prudent for all stakeholders to step back and ask if it’s important to move the focus from one or select individuals to the larger question of a mining clean up which is so critical. The mining landscape can be controlled and regularised only due to three factors:
1) The looters of Goa’s wealth need to be investigated, sent to trial and finally punished.
2) While this is going on a well pointed estimate of the actual loss (and not notional) should be made and the process of recovery should be shared and discussed.
3) Most importantly, the recovered funds need to be ploughed back to strengthened infrastructure and mechanism and a plan for this has to be dovetailed.
Most significantly, there has to be roadmap for rightsizing or downsizing the mining landscape and prepare for further losses of livelihood due to this rightsizing. The irony here is that many of the truck owners, drivers and those in allied business were recipients of mining activity conducted during boom time, even if such extraction and even transport activity was ultimately seen as “illegal”. While they did an honest job as support cogs in a giant wheel their demand for a more than a fair share of a shrinking pie also cannot be met.
It is also unlikely that their demands for compensation for loss of business, in this environment will be met. In such a scenario the state has to prepare for a social angst which may rise as the mining business plummets. We are looking at thousands of people will lose income and livelihoods which brought them immense wealth. It is this workforce that needs to be managed and handled as a new segment of job seekers.
On the other hand there is an opportunity to speed up recovery of the loss and use that amount for welfare schemes, pensions and grants to ease the transition of this workforce back into the system.
Above all, alternate livelihood patterns have to be re-established and traditional occupations like farming and agriculture have to be encouraged so that those who left their farms to do mining come back to farming.
It is along these lines that the post mining scenario has to be envisaged and planned, at the same time, the emphasis on getting value from minor minerals, present in the extraction of toady has to be exploited to give the semblance of the mining industry a chance.
Quite clearly, the looters will have to be punished and the loot recovered but the significance lies in managing the altered landscape to give people and stakeholders who lose the maximum, a chance to be rehabilitated on their home soil.
