GOA’S MINING PITCH

At a NITI Aayog meeting on February 20, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Union government implement the amendment to MMDRA or the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 to pave the way for resumption of iron ore and sand mining in his state. The act was amended in 2015, giving every mine company the right to have a 50-year lease period from the date of award of lease.

Goa wants the amendment to come into effect from May 23, 1987, to allow mining in the state till 2037. “We request for relief on resumption of mining activity. Goa was liberated in 1961 and did not get a second renewal of mining. This has impacted the state’s economy and employment,” Sawant said at the meeting, adding that Goa used to be major exporter of iron ore. “Since mining is banned, exports have also stopped.”

Sawant’s push for resumption of mining comes amid growing unrest in Goa over unemployment and concerns over the state’s sagging economy. Mining, the state’s biggest source of revenue, came to a halt on March 16, 2018, after the Supreme Court cancelled all 88 operational mining leases, saying they had been renewed illegally. The court said fresh leases should have been granted instead of renewals.

Since then, a debate has been on in the state about whether mining should be resumed. On February 8, some 200 people who were directly or indirectly dependent on mining for a livelihood held a demonstration at Panaji’s iconic Azad Maidan to demand resumption of the activity. The Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF), which organised the protest, plans to intensify its agitation. GMPF president Puti Gaonkar argues that the apex court has not banned mining but only sought its regulation. “It is the government’s call [to renew mining] not the court’s,” he says.

The Centre has, so far, been cold to the state’s demand for an amendment to MMDRA. Claude Alvares, environmentalist and convenor of the Goa Foundation, suggests that mining leases be auctioned rather than renewed to prevent monopoly. But local mining companies are not in favour of auctions. They claim that the leases exist since the Portuguese era and auctioning will grant ‘outsiders’ entry into the mining business in the state.