Team Herald
PANJIM: Minister for Agriculture and Goa Forward Party (GFP) president Vijai Sardesai on Thursday said the issue of delay in resumption of iron ore mining activities in Goa will be taken up with the Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on October 27, as he is part of Group of Ministers on mining, constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Minister reiterated that Ordinance is the best and the fastest way out to ensure mining industry restarts in the State. Mining in Goa has come to standstill since March, following Supreme Court judgment to quash and set aside lease renewals granted to 89 mining leases.
Goa Mining People’s Front delegation led by union leader Puti Gaonkar met Sardesai at sidelines of an event ‘21st National Conference of Maharashtra Society of Agricultural Economics’. The delegation has urged Minister to take up the matter with the Centre on priority, as there seems to be no movement over amending the provisions of Mines and Minerals Development Regulation (MMDR) Act and Goa, Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Abolition and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987, for extending the life of leases till 2037.
Sardesai told a delegation that he would be visiting Delhi soon and will hold meeting with Prabhu and work out some solution. “I will be going to Delhi on October 27, that time I will meet Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, who is member of Group of Ministers. I will ask him to clear the file. If required I will call the mining dependents to Delhi,” he said.
Sardesai recalled that he was the first cabinet minister who supported Ordinance as a solution to resume the mining industry. “If you want solution then we have to move an Ordinance in the Parliament,” he said.
The minister said that the State government will have to take the step for resumption of mining activity. “The Court (SC) might like it or not (the steps taken) but we assure the people that we are with them. We should not play volleyball with them,” he told media persons post meeting.
Sardesai said that when he was member of the Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC), constituted in absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, he had taken personal interest in the matter and had urged Chief Minister for an Ordinance.
“Post Chief Minister’s return to Goa (from USA), I didn’t get into the matter since the head of the government was back and it is his portfolio too. Chief Minister did take some steps; but now we will have to follow it up,” he said.
Party’s vice president Santosh Kumar Sawant said that GFP is with the people dependent on mining industry and will not rest till the issue is taken to logical conclusion.
“I live in the mining belt where I have seen how people are suffering. The stoppage of industry has crippled their livelihood. Central government will have to provide the solution to crisis at any cost, that too as soon as possible,” he said.
