Here is a to do list for our hardworking Chief Minister. First the relatively soft and seemingly inconsequential ones which Herald is watching and then the hard ones
a) Forming a House Committee to look into the vexed Regional Plan. Post the formation, the elements in RP 2021 which need to be preserved have to be documented and sent to the various gram sabhas, for people to deliberate. A specific time frame has to be established for the formation of the committee members, their detailed terms of reference and the process of public engagement along with a clear and detailed schedule of sending the plan to the gram sabhas and their return for further discussion
b) Again a seemingly innocuous promise but important to us. The CM has to examine a detailed report, on the Panjim drunk driving case, which he has described as serious. Clearly unhappy with the police treating it as another traffic accident, he had sought a detailed reply from the police, the status of which we do not know.
c) Then coming to the vexed issue of mining loans, the Chief Minister, at a press conference before the assembly session had said that a solution package to ease the burden of mining loans would be announced in the assembly. The discussion on mining in the assembly was more of a Chief Minsters roadmap with dates rather than a policy, which itself needs to be prepared. But before we come to it, a final solution to the restructuring of loans needs to be hammered out with banks and financial institutions.
d) Finally the biggest albatross around the Chief Ministers neck is the Goa mining policy along with its responsibility of executing the renewals of the 27 mining leases as ordered by the High Court. As far as the policy is concerned, he needs to specify one of the three options- renewals, auctions and the unlikeliest one of the government doing the mining through a government corporation. More importantly, the Supreme Court order has not been superseded by the High Court order. It cannot be. While it has allowed the state to formulate its mining policy, it has stated that leases will be executed, only if they satisfy the needs of mineral development. There is a babel of voices on what constitutes mineral development but there is no definition. And no one in this debate has realised the significance of defining this. By not defining this, they will run the risk of another petition in court seeking this definition and since the court has asked for it, it will be more than pleased to stress it.
Simply speaking, the Chief Minister must realise that his mining policy has to be litigation proof and to do that he needs to withdraw himself from most other work and spend dedicated time formulating this policy. It won’t be easy and it cannot be a walk in the park.
Unlike a tourism policy or the youth policy where the governments broad intent with a few specifics can pass muster, the mining policy has to stand the test of court, not now but forever. It needs a different approach and far greater engagement. The Chief Minister can allot the other to do points to other ministers and officers whom he should learn to trust, but the mining policy will be his toughest exam. And he cannot pass it alone.
