Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s statement that the government is exploring various alternatives to resume operations in the mining sector, but that it has met with hurdles is also not unforeseen. It is not going to be easy to have the mining machinery humming with activity, as it once did, in the eastern region of the State. Right now, until the review petition that the government has filed in the Supreme Court is taken up and decided upon, mining operations in the State will not begin.
Aside from that, there is the other question of how the sector can be re-started. The attempts to auction mining leases has its own obstacle, primarily that while the government would be auctioning the rights to mine the ore that is deep in the earth, it does not own the surface rights to most of the mining leases, that are either held by lease holders, or by other private parties. This is a major stumbling block to the option of auction of mining leases in the State, as the second renewals have been declared illegal. Under the circumstances, the government has few options before it to restart mining operations in the State and therefore will have to wait for the SC to decide on the review petition.
On the other hand, the announcement that the government will issue recovery notices to 42 mining firms that were involved in illegalities that led to losses to the State exchequer, couldn’t be more welcome. Since 2012, when the Shah Commission revealed the mining losses and pegged a figure to it, there have been demands that the government recover those losses. Until the present time, Goa has managed to recover Rs 3.99 cr from three mining companies, which is but a paltry amount, considering that the losses are in thousands of crores. The assurance now is that 42 mining companies will be issued recovery notices within the month.
Against this background, Goa needs to come to terms with the fact that mining operations cannot begin anytime soon. It is not just that this depends on decisions taken by the Supreme Court, but the fact that the State is not yet decided on how to allot the leases. The auction route has its own pitfalls, and the renewals are subject to challenge. Add to this the fact that Goan ore has not been in the market for almost a decade, that the ore has a low fe content and requires beneficiation to attract buyers, and that the e-auction of ore has not managed to sell all of the ore that had been identified for the auction. While exploring alternatives to re-start the sector, the government has to keep in mind that once mining operations begin, the ore has to be sold. While this will be the task of the mining companies, the current market is not conducive for the sale of Goan ore that has a low fe content.
What Goa needs is a roadmap, that is at present not available. Yet, any plan to restart mining operations in Goa has to take into consideration the environmental problems caused by such activity, and also have a foolproof system that will not permit any illegalities to occur. It is because there was no control on the extraction and export of ore, that over the years illegalities were able to go unnoticed by the authorities. This, of course, cannot be repeated. The checks on mining, whenever it starts, have to be stringent to the point that these will act as a deterrent. But, yes, while those in the mining business await the sector’s reopening, the rest of the State waits for the losses to be recovered. That has to be a priority.
