Early warning signals are signals that warn the people that something bad is going to happen. At the 2016 Eco summit at Montepellier, they had a workshop on indicators of degradation of the ecosystem.
In June 2015, RBI released 45 early warning signals for wrong doings/frauds in loan accounts. Apparently, Banks did not heed the same and so the present disastrous consequences of numerous bank frauds by BJP friendly crooked businessmen.
In Goa too, we have had two early warning signals on the same issue: Mining. Both the times mining was stopped and we found that thousands of people got affected. All these people crying for their livelihoods were lost. The present BJP had even gone to Delhi to see how to overturn the Supreme Court ruling. They are ready to resort to illegalities to ensure mining does not stop.
This is a huge warning signal we cannot ignore. See what happened when the RBI’s warning signals were ignored.
Question is: the mining industry employs thousands of people directly and indirectly. The income for all these people is better than the best of all industries in Goa. The mine owners too, make the best profits from the same. It is just dig up mud and get foreign exchange. The reality is, the mining deposits will exhaust soon. What then? What will happen to all these people? Will the Government once again take from other lesser earning people to give them? Is this fair? The Government has made no provisions for their future. Shouldn’t the mine owners have a phasing out scheme in place now? Shouldn’t they be responsible for all workers/transporters? Shouldn’t the Government have one? The mining stakeholders are happily enjoying the benefits of the ore reserves far more than the other non-mining inhabitants in Goa. There must be a plan that all mining-related people pay off their loans well before the reserves end.
Truly speaking, getting the land back to natural must be in the scope of the mine owners. The Government will not spend a single rupee on re-habilitation of anyone or anything.
Getting this act done is governance: not doing this is anybody’s guess. We should be more realistic when praising politicians.
