SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Union Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi will chair a crucial meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to find a solution to Goa’s mining imbroglio. Auctioning of iron ore leases and formation of a State-run mining corporation are options, among others, to resume full-fledged mining activities in the State, which have been shut since March 2018.
The meeting will be attended by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Advocate General Devidas Pangam and other stakeholders. Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association (GMOEA), expected to attend the meeting, maintained that they are still waiting for confirmation of it taking place.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also expected to be present for the meeting.
Speaking to the media, Sawant confirmed that the meeting has been scheduled in Delhi on Thursday. “We will have to wait till the meeting concludes to see the outcome,” he said.
After promising a “legislative cure” for nearly two and a half years, the State government, for the first time spoke of auction of leases as an option to resume mining activities. This was after the Chief Minister met Shah and Joshi, in Delhi last week.
“Centre is for auctioning of mining leases. The MMDR Act, which was amended in 2015, speaks about auctioning of mining leases,” Sawant had told the media on Monday, after meeting with GMOEA representatives, while adding that the State is, however, pressing for granting second renewal before the Supreme Court in the Goa Abolition case.
