PM meet on mining delayed as Union mines minister tests +ve

PANAJI: The two crucial meetings on resumption of mining activities in the state, which were supposed to be held in Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi before October 15, have been postponed after Union mines minister Pralhad Joshi tested positive for coronavirus.
Speaking to TOI, Sawant said that a team of state government officials, including the director of mines and geology, was supposed to travel to Delhi for the first meeting, but it was cancelled after Joshi contracted the infection.
“I was supposed to go to Delhi on October 13 and 14 to attend the second meeting, but it has now been delayed,” Sawant said.
On September 30, Sawant met the prime minister in Delhi and said that Modi would have a meeting with bureaucrats and another political one to discuss and resolve the state’s mining issue. Sawant had said that the meets will happen before October 15, and that he was looking forward to a positive outcome in the coming days.
Sawant explained in detail the mining issue to Modi, that if the industry doesn’t start, the state’s economy would be in the doldrums. He had appealed to Modi to bring in a legislative cure to restart the industry. “The PM is positive about restarting mining activities in the state,” he had said.
The CM had urged Joshi to permit a deemed second renewal, so that mining can start and continue till 2027.
The state had earlier urged the Centre to amend the Goa, Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Abolition and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987, to restart mining activities.
Sawant had said that if the erstwhile Congress government completed second renewal process in 2007, the industry wouldn’t have had to grind to a halt.
There has been no mining activity in Goa since March 15, 2018, after the Supreme Court quashed the second renewal of 88 mining leases. The state government had filed a review petition on February 7, 2018, in the apex court against the same order. When Sawant met Modi in March, he had urged the PM to file an affidavit before the Supreme Court in support of resumption of mining in the state. The state has been holding meetings with Union ministers to resolve the issue.
Two mining companies had approached the SC for extension of mining leases till 2037. The state government had subsequently maintained that the mining leases could be extended up to 2037, as per the contention of the companies, but that it would abide by the decision of the court.
It also said that the mining companies had made a representation to the mines department contending that under the amendment to Section 8(A) of the Mines and Minerals Development Act, they were entitled to extend their mining leases up to 2037.