TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: State government is in the process of framing a scheme for mining dependent people to help them make the transition from mining to agriculture, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the State Assembly on Tuesday.
Parrikar also said that the State Mineral Policy, which is currently at the draft stage, will spell out government’s proposal to clear off mining rejects in agriculture properties to bring the wasteland into cultivable agriculture land.
“We are also considering filling up the abandoned pits with heaps of rejects so as to bring the mining uses land under agriculture,” Chief Minister said adding ‘since the matter concerns policy decision of the government, the same will be highlighted in the finalized Mineral Policy.’
Parrikar said this in a written reply to Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldessai, who sought to know whether government has formulated any scheme for the mining dependent people.
The Mining industry in the State has come to a standstill due to stoppage of transportation and extraction of iron ore following Supreme Court directives. Around one lakh people dependent on the sector are teetering on the brink of displacement.
Parrikar in the past had directed agriculture department and Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) to tap farming potential in the State to create an alternative livelihood for people facing displacement.
The agriculturists thereafter had said that cultivation of cash crops such as cashew, cocum, spices and reclamation of mining land could help people earn a decent living.
According to agriculture department, there was an increase in demand for paddy seeds from farmers living along mining belts.
