PANJIM: Blaming the miners themselves, the judiciary, unwilling legislature, greedy executives and bureaucracy for the current mining crisis, Fomento Group chairman Avdhut Timblo on Friday laid an indirect attack on the BJP-led State government asserting that there is no adequate political willingness to restart iron ore mining industry in Goa.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of Vibrant Goa: Global Expo and Summit 2019, Timblo said that “adequate political willingness which should have been there to restart mining in Goa is not there”. He said, “We should elect good people.”
Timblo was one of the speakers for the session on sustainable mining at Vibrant Goa, which saw the participation of Nasser Al Maqbali of Minerals Development Oman and Dr Alok Drolla CMD Surajgarh Group.
Timblo said that 60,000 families in Goa have been thrown into poverty by stopping mining. “I can tell you the players who actually stopped mining, which may also include myself in a way, are the judiciary, the unwilling legislature, greedy executive, and bureaucracy,” he said.
The mining company chairman said the prime reason for the current mining crisis is that the society we are living in, is not led properly by its leaders. “Goa was a financially viable entity, but by stopping mining, the debt of Goa has gone up from a billion dollars to 5 billion dollars. The State government is unable to service that debt,” he said, adding that it is now an ‘unsustainable administration and unsustainable economy’.
“If we were able to balance the things very well, we would have been financially sustainable and could have given a good life to those dependents. But things go out of control and society suffers because society is not led properly by the leaders and then the leaders get changed sometimes,” he said.
“Iron ore mining industry has been stopped in Goa, on the contrary it ought to have been encouraged,” he stated.
Speaking about sustainable mining, the mine owner said the system for sustainable mining of resources comes from good legislation, with good implementation in participation with government, cooperation and society.
“If you make the legislation good, you will be able use the mineral for the betterment of the society. The system of law is very important for sustainable mining,” he stated.
Other miners who were present for the event, speaking to the media, said the leaders representing Goa at the Centre (Member of Parliament) are most insignificant. They pointed out that the mining industry use to shell out Rs 3,000 cr revenue to the State and another Rs 2,000 cr to Central government in form of various taxes annually. “Today that income is nil,” they said.
