Panjim: The
Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a bunch of review petitions filed by the Goa
government and a top mining company, seeking review of a 2018 judgement which
had scrapped renewals of 88 mining leases in the state on the basis of
procedural irregularities. In his reaction, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said
that he could not be held responsible for the delay in filing the review
petition because he took charge as CM in March 2019, when the outer limit for a
review petition had already lapsed. The Opposition, however, accused Sawant of
fooling Goan voters by constantly promising to restart the mining industry.
This
judgement could lead to a fresh twist to politics in poll-bound Goa, where
resumption of mining activity is being billed as one of the key talking points
ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls.
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Goa
Government plans to pass a legislation to float a state mining corporation
during the upcoming session of the state legislative assembly, the auction
mining leases at the earliest, says the Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant on
Tuesday.
CM also
said that Goa government has already signed an MoU with the Mineral Exploration
Corporation of India a central government agency, on Monday during his visit to
Delhi, which would help explore ore deposits and mining leases in the state,
after which auctioning of leases would be held on an expedited basis.
In
February 2018, the court cancelled the renewals issued in 2015, saying they
were granted in haste and without application of mind. Goa filed its review
pleas over a year later in late 2019. Vedanta followed suit in 2020. Goa’s
review pleas came 650 days after the Supreme Court’s February 2018 order and
that of Vedanta after 907 days.
