PANJIM: The opposition parties on Tuesday slammed the Goa government after the Supreme Court dismissed its review petition, which had sought to review the February 7, 2018 judgment quashing the second renewal of 88 mining leases.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar said that the Supreme Court dismissing the review petition had vindicated the Congress party stand that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fooling the people of Goa.
Chodankar said that former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar stopped the mining in Goa in 2012 with a sole intention of handing over the mining industry to crony club of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. The BJP government deliberately fooled with the people of Goa giving them false promises on resumption of mining. The dismissal of the review petition has vindicated the Congress Party’s stand that the BJP is playing with the sentiments of the people, he charged.
Former Union Minister Adv Ramakant Khalap said that the strongly worded order of the Supreme Court exposes the deliberate misleading and misguiding approach of the BJP government on mining issue. “Such practice must be firmly disapproved to preserve the institutional sanctity of the decision making of this Court” the Court stated in its order, Adv Khalap pointed out.
According to Khalap, the time limit to file review petition was 30 days and it had to be filed before the same judge who had passed the order. But the review petition was preferred by the Goa government with a delay of 650 days; 651 days by Vedanta Limited and 700 days in case of Goa Foundation. This clearly shows that the government was not at all sincere and serious about restarting mining operations.
Reaction to the Supreme Court judgement, Progressive Front of Goa (PFG) general secretary Mahesh Mhambre said, “Finally the bitter truth is out and that too on the auspicious occasion of Ashadhi Ekadashi. Goa government’s review petition on mining has been dismissed by the Apex Court. For almost a decade now, mining industry has been in absolute doldrums.
Mhambre said that mining stakeholders led several agitations and had also called on Union Ministers and government officials in the national capital to seek their intervention for resumption of mining, but they only returned with empty promises.
Every attempt was made by the BJP to divert the attention of people from mining and whenever a question was asked on the same, they had some fake story to please the mining dependents, Mhambre said mentioning famous quote, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Every election promise had mining resumption as the centre of attraction. But today BJP and this directionless BJP government stands exposed post the Supreme Court verdict, he said.
Moreover the judgement clearly says that the appeal is time barred and filed beyond the statutory time frame by more than 650 days. What a shame. This has been a sheer insult to the sentiments of mining industry and those who strived hard with a hope for resumption, Mhambre said.
“We will have to wait and watch as to what fresh story would BJP floats to justify such a serious lapse to sail its sinking ship,” he said.
One of the petitioners Sudip Tamhankar, a private bus operator said that he was compelled to file writ petition in Supreme Court in 2015 after the then Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar told him that the government had no money to grant fuel subsidy to the private bus operators and challenged him to approach the court to challenge the government’s decision not to auction mining leases.
Tamhankar alleged that the government filed review petition only to fool the mining dependents and demanded that the government should now immediately either set up the Goa Mining Development Corporation or auction the mining leases in the State and revenue generate through it be utilised for the development of the State and welfare of the people particularly from mining areas.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said that the State government will soon take a decision on either forming Goa Mining Development Corporation or auction mining leases to resume mining operations.
“We were expecting a decision in our favour from Supreme Court. The government has now two options — either to form Goa Mining Development Corporation or auction mining leases. We are hopeful that the government will soon take a decision on this,” Tanavade said.
