The Supreme Court's blanket ban on mining across the country is responsible for the current Rupee crisis, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said Thursday.
Speaking at a meeting of workers employed in the mining sector, who held a rally in support of resumption of mining, the Chief Minister, who displayed support for their cause by attending the rally, said that stoppage of exports contributed to the Current Account Deficit.
“The Supreme Court is to be blamed for the Rupee crisis. The Rupee has plunged because of the suspension of mining activity in India,” Parrikar said. Parrikar, who has taken stands against the apex court in the past also, made it clear that it was for an elected Government to run the State and not the courts.
“If they want to stop mining let them do it after hearing the State. These absolute bans are destroying India. There should be a restriction on illegality. But a ban renders everything within the zone null and void,” Parrikar said, adding that the bans crippled States and the nation economically.
In March last year, Parrikar had also said that the prolonged ban on mining amounted to “justice delayed, justice denied” and accused judges in the apex court of living in ivory towers.
“I will put it across to them (Supreme Court) bluntly if I get a chance. I will say you are living in ivory towers,” Parrikar had said.
“You cannot do this. Such incidents have to be handled on a case-to-case basis,” Parrikar had also said in the wake of the Supreme Court imposed ban on mining in the State after the tabling of the Shah Commission report in Parliament which articulated a Rs35,000-crore illegal mining scam.
Goa was the country's largest iron ore exporter, dispatching nearly 54 million tons of ore at its peak or 60 per cent of the nation's exports, mainly to China, and also to Pakistan, Japan and other South-Eastern countries.
The Chief Minister also referred to the Durga Shakti Nagpal incident, claiming that the Uttar Pradesh-cadre Indian Administrative Service officer's case had resulted in a “suppression of all (sand mining) activities.”