With a grim picture of Government's apathy, public misery, dying industry and mindless activism for last three months, mining associations in Goa have asked both centre and state to immediately resume operation of mining activities in Goa, a move to protect jobs and mining industry in the State, according to sources.
As per industry estimate, Goa's mining industry supports the livelihood of 300,000 people. The State's reserves do not possess high-quality iron ore, but it is still used as a resource backup by China, South Korea and India. In the past, the mineral has earned foreign exchange up to $8 billion a year. It has also paid almost Rs 6,000 crore every year to the exchequer.
On February 7, 2018 Supreme Court asked for stopping all mining activities in Goa. On March 15, 2018, mining in the state came to a halt, while the Government did nothing for this!
Following the closure of all mining operations, on March 19, people come out in street in the open, demanding the government's immediate intervention. However, sources close to the development said, big mining firms such as Vedanta, Fomento, Chowgule asked about 5,000 people to leave. “Not to mention all the trucks, (12,000) and barges where more than 30,000 people are employed will be left with no alternate option in next few days,” it said.
It is also learnt that the mining dependents along with their families have now decided to stage yet another protest on May 10 in Panjim, demanding resumption in mining activities and against the recent large scale lay off of thousands of employees by mining companies.
Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association (GMOEA), however, believes that they have done nothing wrong for the people of Goa. GMOEA in a statement said, “Mines were originally given during the Portuguese time as concessions which were thereafter converted as mining leases. Some leases are owned by corporates, some are medium sized and some leases belong to families.”
Similarly, the Supreme Court order in its order said, “The State of Goa was not under any constitutional obligation to grant fresh mining leases through the process of competitive bidding or auction.”
Unfortunately governments (either State or Centre) have not done anything, whatsoever. Yes, one thing the Government has done is not to act during the arguments of the case in Supreme Court and later on giving false hope about filing a review petition in the apex court.
Meanwhile, sources said that the activists managed to even stop the transportation of iron ore extracted till March 15 as per court order. “The mining firms were able to get a stay on the Bombay high court order, but even now Goan government does nothing. Rather, the Government fails to file an affidavit in Bombay high court on time (despite Supreme Court's directions),” it said.