Industry in the dark over govt’s plans

PANAJI: Stakeholders in the state’s iron ore mining industry on Tuesday reacted with displeasure to the government’s statement that the Centre would not help in resumption of mining activities. 

Expressing concern over the future of the industry, a leaseholder said that the Centre refusing to find a solution is something to be worried about.

“The state government is silent on the next course of action and has not held a meeting with leaseholders for a long time. We are completely in the dark over what the government plans to do,” he said.

Meanwhile, bureaucrats in the mining department said that they were ignorant about a possible solution to the mining imbroglio.

On Monday, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is the mines minister, said that the state would have to come out with a solution so as to resume mining operations since no solution is coming from the Centre. The Chief Minister, however, did not say what would be the solution.

The state was hoping that the Centre would help by amending the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the Goa, Daman & Diu Mining Concession (Abolitions & Declaration of Mining Leases) Act. However, the central government has ruled out any such amendments.

The Chief Minister had earlier said that the government would look at all options to restart mining, including auction of the leases. The option of a state mining corporation was also mentioned.

It is learnt that among the mineral-rich states, Odisha is the only state to have a mining corporation.

The Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) owns chrome, iron ore and manganese mines and is classified as a gold category state public sector undertaking. The OMC has about 34 mining leases of the over 600 leases in the state.

Mining industry in Goa has been shut since March 16, 2018, due to a Supreme court judgment that quashed the renewal of 88 leases and ordered fresh leases with environmental clearances. The industry closure has affected the economy badly. The process of auction to get new leaseholders has also not started.