The long wait to get mining operations restarted may just get longer as the process is far from reaching the point where the government can go ahead and permit operations. The Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) that is currently surveying the leases will require another two or three months to submit the Geological Survey Report (GSR), without which the iron ore mining leases auctioning process cannot be held, as it is this report that will identify the blocks to be auctioned. Though the preliminary report identifed five such leases, the final report will seal the choice. It is after this that the leases will be transferred to the Goa Mineral Development Corporation that came into being in September last but has not begun functioning as rules have not been framed.
Resumption of mining operations cannot be placed on any fast track and the process will take its due course as the procedures involved are cumbersome. The government should not, therefore, be announcing dates by which it will restart operations, an action that fuels hope in the mining dependants only to have them dashed again when the process, expectedly, fails to start on the given date. This has been occurring time and again.
For instance the Goa Mineral Development Corporation, announced in the Budget of 2021-22, was to start functioning in May last year, but was notified only in September, as the Bill was passed in the monsoon session, with the Budget session having been curtailed due to the notification of the civic polls being issued. Similarly, the government had also announced that at least five leases will be auctioned by December 2021, which couldn’t have happened and expectedly didn’t as the government is nowhere near making this happen. Such statements should be avoided and only when the government is ready for the process should there be an announcement made.
The government may feel pressurised to announce dates as the mining dependants have been constantly seeking the restart of operations, demanding that the sector be reopened as early as possible for there are thousands of them who are jobless. For them it is a matter of financial earning, of keeping the home fires burning. It is for the government to take these groups into confidence and explain the reasons for the delay in throwing open the sector. Announcing dates of restarting operations that cannot be met does not serve any purpose. The next time the government, or any member of the government, makes a statement on restarting mining operations, it should be a firm date and not speculative.
When mining restarts, it has to do so having completed the entire procedure and having followed all the rules. There can be no compromise on that and it will serve no purpose. It’s been just over four years since mining was stopped the second time. Since the wait for the restart of operations has been so protracted, it is preferable to wait longer, follow the legal process without any deviation, as past attempts to circumvent the law got the operations halted. In 2012, it was due to the illegal mining scam and in 2018 it was when the Supreme Court struck down the second renewal of leases terming them illegal.
These experiences should be reason enough to stick to the law in letter and spirit giving no occasion for another halt to the operations as this will not benefit anyone. Let the survey of the leases be completed, let the report be presented before any decision is taken. Besides, one of the aims of the new corporation is “to carry out mining operations in an orderly, scientific and ecological sustainable manner” which in Goa, where environmental consciousness is high, just cannot be understated.
