There has been yet another promise made of restarting mining operations and the target date for throwing open the mines is three months from now. The State Legislative Assembly has just weeks ago passed the Bill to incorporate a State Mining Corporation that will hereafter undertake all aspects of mining. The notification of the Act in the official gazette has not yet been published and until that is done, there is little the government can do to restart mining operations. Against this background, three months appears to be too limited a period to set up all the systems required to restart mining operations as the State will not be continuing from where it stopped but will be overhauling the entire sector for a completely fresh start that will put behind all the illegalities of the earlier period and recommence on a clean slate.
The State Mining Corporation was announced in the Budget speech of this year, but had an immediate setback. When in March this year the Assembly session was adjourned due to the increasing COVID cases and the imposition of the code of conduct for the postponed civic polls, the government had said it would introduce an ordinance to set up the mining corporation so as to not lose time and had set May 30 as deadline for the corporation to start working. No ordinance was promulgated by that date and a Bill was introduced and passed during the monsoon session of the Assembly in July. Now, less than a month later, comes the promise of mining operations resuming in three months.
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Before the heavy machinery rolls back into the mining leases and the earth is gouged out in search of iron ore, there are a few other aspects that need to be considered. In the first Assembly session of the year, then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in his address to the House had said that the government had been making efforts to resume mining in a systematic manner based on the sustainable mining principle. He had said it would be done by rejuvenating the State’s economy, preserving the environment, the natural resources and the health status of the people in the mining sector. All these aspects are of crucial importance and mining operations undertaken in such manner will not meet with objections from the people.
Mining, no doubt is an important contributor to the State economy. In 2011-12, the last financial year when the sector was fully operational its contribution to the Gross State Domestic Product was 16 per cent, then in 2019-20 it had dropped to 0.2 per cent. The sector’s contribution to the economy is quantifiable but the hazards in terms of environmental pollution and deteriorating health of the people have never been measured but they exist and if it is economic contribution that drives the efforts to restart mining operations, the pollution leading to health and environmental concerns should be equally weighed before the sector is opened again.
Goa has another unique point for consideration when it comes to mining. It is the recovery of the losses from illegal mining that occurred prior to 2012. Eleven years after the illegal mining scam was unearthed, the investigations into the illegalities still continue and the recovery has been minimal. The government has to put equal amount of effort to recover the losses as it does for restarting mining operations. It would not be just to have the shadow of illegalities still hanging over the sector when it restarts under the State Mining Corporation. As already stated, it has to be a fresh start free of all encumbrances, specifically to keep away those who have in the past been tainted by illegalities. It can be done, as long as the government has the will.
