With Narendra Modi at the Centre, Manohar Parrikar now has time to go back to three big ticket decisions that await. Decisions that will leave a deep impact and could either catapult him to an iconic status or plummet his popularity downwards. Either way taking no decision, can no longer be a decision
Regional Plan
Problems
Notified plan kept in abeyance. At present two plans in force, leading to accusations that instead of the stronger points of both being used as was the intention, the loopholes from both used to clear projects
Plans that were made by village committees, discussed and passed by gram sabhas and then forwarded to the authorities for integration into the main plan were bypassed and other plans were instead inserted
ODPs do not come under the regional plan. This makes the regional plan weak as at least around 30% of developable areas come under the regional plan
Challenges
How to satisfy various quarters. One is the green lobby and the other the development lobby
The green lobby backed Parrikar after the sins of the Congress and are expecting him to take their side as far as ecologically fragile parts of the State are concerned
Before the elections, the State government had promised to scrap the regional plan as soon as it was elected. Now the government is more than 2 years old and there has been nothing done to solve matters. In fact the process has still not been started.
Before the elections, there were a lot of complaints from various quarters that after the draft plan there were changes made when the final plan was
finally notified.
Even noted Town Planner Edger Ribeiro, who was the architect of the draft plan in the process says the notified plan is illegal given that as of now both the 2011 and 2021 regional plans are effectively being used and the RP 2021 has not been de-notified.
“The very fact that the plan has been held in abeyance itself is illegal.
It is a notified plan and at the least it can be de-notified, which has not been done,” says Miguel Braganza of the GBA. He is also of the opinion that instead of going down this path the government should have worked on the structure of this plan and corrected the anomalies.
There were complaints from village groups that that the village plans finalised and submitted to the authorities were not the same plans that were finally included in the regional plan. In fact in the case of Loutolim village, an FIR was even filed because a fake plan was submitted.
However, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is on record saying that he wanted a plebiscite and his body language suggests that he would not be averse to bypass the gram sabhas.
Mining
It’s clear that the onus on deciding the future roadmap of mining lies with the State government. The ball is in its court now.
A quick look at three crucial parts of the Supreme Court order:
1) Mining by the lessees was illegal, not the leases themselves
Order: (i) The deemed mining leases of the lessees in Goa expired on 22.11.1987 and the maximum of 20 years renewal period of the deemed mining leases in Goa expired on 22.11.2007 and consequently mining by the lessees after 22.11.2007 was illegal and hence the impugned order dated 10.09.2012 of Government of Goa and the impugned order dated 14.09.2012 of the MoEF, Government of India are not liable to be quashed;
2) No mining activities within one kilometer from national parks and wild life sanctuaries
Order: Until the order dated 04.08.2006 of this Court is modified by this Court in I.A. No.1000 in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India & Ors., there can be no mining activities within one kilometer from the boundaries of National Parks and Sanctuaries in Goa;
3) Decision on mining lease renewals to be in accordance with State’s mining policy
Order: State Government may grant mining leases of iron ore and other ores in Goa in accordance with its policy decision and in accordance with MMDR Act and the Rules made thereunder in consonance with the constitutional provisions;
Problems
Lot of pressure from his MLAs and large stakeholders on with it. Loans of trucks, barges, mining machinery including interest have touched almost Rs 800 crore
Supreme Court orders on mining leases being illegal have to be thoroughly studied before a decision can be taken on going forward
National interests have to be taken into consideration given that there is a school of thought that e-auction is the way forward on leases as well as keeping natural resources for the country’s own use
Status/solution
As of now the government can e-auction the 15 million tonnes of ore according to the Apex court guidelines
After that once a proper dump policy is in place, it can sell the ore and use the rejects to rehabilitate the mining ravaged land
After lease allotment policy is made, and leases allotted anew, then the lessees have to obtain environment clearances after conducting EIAs. Only then the 20 million tonnes allowed by the court can be mined. Also the various studies mandated by the court have to be completed before a final road map is done
Infrastructure
The infrastructure in the State for industry and even tourism leave much to be desired. The outside investment coming into the State is almost nothing. Even though the new investment policy speaks about creating 50,000 jobs and attracting some Rs 25,000 crores into the State in the next 5 years, if the past is any indication and the present situation is any sort of benchmark the chief minister has an uphill task.
“The uttermost priority is that the land should be made available to the industrial units along with adequate water and power facility,” industrialist Atul Pai Kane says.
Challenges
No investment coming into the State
No proper infrastructure like uninterrupted and steady water, etc available
Many industrial estates in bad shape
Land is an issue for local entrepreneurs; even though there is a lot of land available with the government, difficult for locals to get plots
Two big areas of concern, power and land
Power
Government has obtained an allocation in the Gare Pelma, Sector III Coal Block at Chhattisgarh from the Union Government. The coal block has the potential to power an 1800 MW power plant. An agreement has been entered into with a developer who would provide minimum power of 15% i.e. around 270 MW to the State. The State government also has the first right of refusal for another 10% power i.e. around 180 MW from the power plant. Thus, the total availability of power from the coal block is 450 MW.
100 MW of power is expected to be available to Goa by mid-2014.
NB: Coal block allotment including the one in Goa is under investigation by the CBI. All files are with the agency.
Land is another sticky issue.
The State already has around 10 lakh sq mts as industrial estates. Also another 40 lakhs is stuck with wannabe SEZ promoters.
And the government is still thinking of picking up more land and setting up more industrial estates. It has to try and first improve/sort out the problems in the existing industrial estates, industrial scenario before putting up more infrastructure.
The same thing is with tourism. As of now, the government has announced many big ticket measures. However, the infrastructure in the tourism belts of Baga and Benaulim are quite pathetic and this has to be improved drastically in case the State is to attract high-end tourists.
