Team Herald
PANJIM: Asserting that iron ore mining operations have to resume before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress on Friday said the State should take an all party delegation, led by the BJP, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Winter session of Parliament to know the stand the Centre intends to take to solve the crisis that has hit nearly three lakh persons.
Congress assured, on behalf of its national president Rahul Gandhi, that the party will support the amendments to the MMDR Act and Goa Mining Abolition Act if introduced in Parliament.
Mining dependents under the banner of Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) on Friday met Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, Congress MLAs Digambar Kamat, Nilkant Halarnkar and Tony Fernandes seeking their support to mount pressure on the government.
Addressing the dependents, Kavlekar said he will urge Rajya Sabha MP and BJP State president Vinay Tendulkar to fix an appointment with the Prime Minister for all party delegation. “Only the Prime Minister will be in a position to give us the exact stand of his government. There is no question in meeting the Mines Minister or Law Minister. If we have to mount pressure, we have to meet Prime Minister,” Kavlekar said.
Kavlekar also said that he will write to Governor Dr Mridula Sinha, Speaker Dr Pramod Sawant and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar requesting for a day-long session of the State Legislative Assembly to discuss the mining issue and pass a fresh resolution for mining resumption. “Mining will be the only issue that will be discussed during the session,” he said.
Later speaking Kamat said the party will support the dependents in every step towards resumption of mining activities. “Our party national president has also said he is with the mining dependents,” Kamat said, questioning why there has been a delay in amending the act, when BJP is in power at the State and Centre.
