19 FEB, 2013, ET BUREAU
NEW DELHI: Goa's mining industry took their urgent plea to the Prime Minister on Monday seeking his help to resume mining in the state. In a memorandum presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an organisation representing workers and other mining beneficiaries pleaded "an affirmative political consensus between the state and the central government for urgent and immediate resumption of mineral development operations in Goa."
Mining in the state came to a halt after a centre-appointed committee raised serious issues with the decade-old practices, government connivance in giving clearances, and other objections. The iron-ore rich state primarily exports its low grade ore to Chinese steelmakers. Goa Mining People's Front describes itself as a rainbow coalition of mass organisations, major trade unions and mining dependent people.
Mining in the state was under Portuguese rule in the 1950s is the single most employment - generating industry in Goa, contributing over Rs 1,480 crore a year to the State exchequer and Rs 6,665 crore to the central government, its argued in its memorandum. After the Justice M B Shah led Commission Report was tabled in the parliament last year, the state government suspended all operations on 10th September, 2012. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), also pulled up in the report, on its part declared clearances to 137 mining leases suspended. Then a month later, acting on a Public Interest Litigation the Supreme Court on 5th October, 2012 ordered a complete halt on all operations.
The alliance of truck owners, barge operators, want the Centre and BJP state government to make joint presentations to the SC for a return to normalcy. They claim four lakh people in Goa or nearly a third of its population are directly dependent on mining, as labourers, truck owners, barge operators, port workers. "The mining ban has had its debilitating effect on the Goan economy and the tremors are acutely felt on the socioeconomic and political front as well," says the memorandum.
The memo delivered to the PM on Monday evening wants him to get the MOEF at the Centre and government of Goa to lift their respective suspension orders. It seeks help in restructuring and deferring loans payments and waiver of the interest on borrowings. In its affidavit before the Supreme Court, the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP state government has challenged the findings of the Shah Commission as well as the forest bench's Central Empowered Committee (CEC). Having set up its own commission, the state has sought to redress the issues of compliance itself.
NEW DELHI: Goa's mining industry took their urgent plea to the Prime Minister on Monday seeking his help to resume mining in the state. In a memorandum presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an organisation representing workers and other mining beneficiaries pleaded "an affirmative political consensus between the state and the central government for urgent and immediate resumption of mineral development operations in Goa."
Mining in the state came to a halt after a centre-appointed committee raised serious issues with the decade-old practices, government connivance in giving clearances, and other objections. The iron-ore rich state primarily exports its low grade ore to Chinese steelmakers. Goa Mining People's Front describes itself as a rainbow coalition of mass organisations, major trade unions and mining dependent people.
Mining in the state was under Portuguese rule in the 1950s is the single most employment - generating industry in Goa, contributing over Rs 1,480 crore a year to the State exchequer and Rs 6,665 crore to the central government, its argued in its memorandum. After the Justice M B Shah led Commission Report was tabled in the parliament last year, the state government suspended all operations on 10th September, 2012. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), also pulled up in the report, on its part declared clearances to 137 mining leases suspended. Then a month later, acting on a Public Interest Litigation the Supreme Court on 5th October, 2012 ordered a complete halt on all operations.
The alliance of truck owners, barge operators, want the Centre and BJP state government to make joint presentations to the SC for a return to normalcy. They claim four lakh people in Goa or nearly a third of its population are directly dependent on mining, as labourers, truck owners, barge operators, port workers. "The mining ban has had its debilitating effect on the Goan economy and the tremors are acutely felt on the socioeconomic and political front as well," says the memorandum.
The memo delivered to the PM on Monday evening wants him to get the MOEF at the Centre and government of Goa to lift their respective suspension orders. It seeks help in restructuring and deferring loans payments and waiver of the interest on borrowings. In its affidavit before the Supreme Court, the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP state government has challenged the findings of the Shah Commission as well as the forest bench's Central Empowered Committee (CEC). Having set up its own commission, the state has sought to redress the issues of compliance itself.
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