All the political parties in the fray for the February 14 elections have been promising the restart of mining operations within weeks or months of a new government being formed in the State. Every promise is on the condition that the party is voted to power and is able to form the government. Yet, it is now exactly four years since the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the second renewals of mining leases, striking them down as illegal and passing strictures against the government. Additionally, the SC had asked the government to start the process of auctioning the leases as per the provisions of the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulations Act, which was not done.
Four years later, Goa has only just months ago taken a serious step towards restarting mining by forming a minerals corporation to bring all mining operations under this and then auction the leases or even begin operations by the State. The formation of the corporation was announced in March last year in the Budget speech and immediately after the assurance was given that the corporation would start functioning by May 31. That date wasn’t met, and later in the year the government made another assurance that at least five to six mining leases would be auctioned by December 15, 2021. That too, as was expected, didn’t happen and with the announcement of elections, the process is now on hold, till the results are declared, for the new government to take action.
While there are election promises of restarting mining being made, no party has presented a very detailed roadmap on achieving this in the deadlines that they have announced. Just how feasible are these assurances that are being made in the run-up to the elections? Unless the party can show in what manner they are planning to restart mining operations, these will, again, remain just one of the many promises that all political parties make in the din of the election campaign, with hardly any intention of fulfilling them. Goa’s mining dependents require more than mere promises of restarting mining. They need a plan on paper that will present how the sector will be revived and what are the plans for sustainable mining.
All parties must remember that any plans for restarting of mining operations in the State must be within the framework of the law and mandatorily include mitigating the pollution aspects, the protection of the environment and safeguarding the people against the ills of mining. Unless a plan that encapsulates all this is presented, there is no way in which mining operations can restart in the State. People in the State are by now highly aware of the polluting nature of mining operations and how it can affect the environment and people’s lives. It is a sector that though it keeps the economic wheels turning, has other effects that required to be eased.
But Goa’s mining sector can never make a fresh and clean start unless the past losses are all recovered. As long as Goa only debates on the figure of the losses and puts little effort in actually recovering the amounts this will not happen. The recovery of the mining losses is as vital and of immediate importance as the restart of operations. No government can be allowed to get away without bringing the offenders of illegal mining to book. Successive governments have delayed far too long on this aspect, possibly in the hope that the people will somehow forget it. By doing so they are abdicating their duty and this cannot be allowed in the State. The new government will have to bear this in mind when it gets on the task of restarting mining operations.
