The Goa mining industry could lose as many as 40,000 jobs even if the mining ban is lifted shortly, an Industry trade body has foretold.The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has members from all fields in Goa has written to Union Finance Secretary Sumit Bose, painted a very gloomy picture of the industry in the State.
“Even when the mining activity resumes, we expect that the volumes will decline by more than 60 per cent rendering jobless nearly 40,000 youth currently employed in mining and related sectors,” Chairman of the GCCI Narayan Bandekar has said in his plea to the Finance Secretary seeking that the Central Government ‘reach out and help the State economy,’ which he said has been consistently been reporting lower volumes.
Mining activity in the State has been halted for over a year now with the State Government first bringing a halt to mining through suspension of leases, followed by the Central Government, who through the MoEF suspended all Environmental Clearances and further from October 5, through a Supreme Court order based on a petition filed by the Goa Foundation through its advocate Prashant Bhushan.
The halts came after the Justice Shah Commission of Enquiry pointed to what could be an INR 35,000 crore mining scam. In 2010, Goa exported over 50 million tons of iron ore. According to documents tabled in the State legislative Assembly, nearly a third of the total exported ore from Goa is illegal.
“Given the fact that the matter of ban on mining in the State is in Supreme Court, this position is not expected to improve in the ensuing fiscal year. While the shortfall in revenues on account of Goa may be insignificant to the Centre, the State given the small size of its revenue base, will find it difficult to make up for the 25 per cent shortfall in the revenues (due the mining ban as claimed by the GCCI president).