The Aam Aadmi Party’s Goa unit has criticised the BJP-led ruling coalition and the Congress over the proposed all-party delegation to raise the issue of mining ore licenses with central ministers in New Delhi.
In a press release issued here AAP leader Siddarth Karapurkar questioned the “nexus” between the ruling and opposition parties in planning the Delhi meeting to urge the Union Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to “find out means and ways so that mining operations in the State were not affected due to Supreme Court order”.
The Supreme Court has directed that all mining activities on 87 cancelled leases be stopped from March 15.
Mr. Karapurkar called it as yet another case of a friendship between the Congress and BJP and its alliance partners to sell the interests of the State to a few miners.
AAP also lamented that the absence of a responsible opposition in the legislature is strikingly visible.
The AAP has alleged that a few MLAs of both parties, whose stakes in the mining business is no secret, are grouping together in the name of this all-party delegation to New Delhi.
Mr. Karapurkar demanded that the people of Goa must know what dialogue this delegation will have with the Central Ministers and people must also know what are the advantages and disadvantages of such a course for the State.
“Mining resource is a wealth of the people,” he asserted and lamented that the all-party delegation, was “surely carrying a brief of a select few who have been enjoying the mining wealth of the State hitherto as payback for the funding they have been receiving for their political careers.”
The AAP leader pointed out that while the senior-most Minister in the government, Sudin Dhavlikar, had in justification of their proposed Delhi delegation, said the State faces a loss of ₹3,500 crore and the ban will affect 2 lakh people, he has not spoken of who is going to recover the “loot of the mining wealth as estimated by Justice (retd) M. B. Shah Commission in its report on illegal mining. Why is there no clarity on that?” he asked.
