Panaji (Goa)
Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association, the body representing the mine owners in Goa today termed the impact of the closure of the mining leases in the coastal state as “economic and social disaster”.
“This is an economic and social disaster. The industry has faced many challenges in the past 70 years; be it change in sovereign, economic, political and so on; we have An obligation to our history and our stake stakeholders (now in the third generation across Goa) to persevere, and we will,” GMOEA President Ambar Timblo said.
Goa government has shut down operations at the mining leases in the State since last mid-night implementing the Supreme Court directives. The people dependent on this industry are in the panic as there is no clarity over the future of this industry.
Timblo, who is also managing director of Fomento Resources, one of the oldest mining firm, said that such a situation was “unforeseen and huge blow to everyone.”
“ After the hearing in the Supreme Court (lifting the ban on mining in the year 2014) and after ensuring all compliance’s were in place, this situation was unforeseen and a huge blow to everyone,” he said.
Goa’s iron ore mining industry had faced a ban in the year 2012 following SC directives which had taken cognizance of M B Shah commission’s observations on illegal mining in the State.
Timblo said that the closure of the industry from today will have immediate toll on the truck operators. “Immediately the truck owners will have no operations from today; and at mines all operations have stopped. So a huge economic setback immediately,” he said.
He said that the impact on unemployment will gradually start taking a toll, especially in the event of missing clarity on the road forward.
When asked whether Goa government wrongly handled the mining issue before the Apex Court, Timblo said “I do not believe any persons either in government or in opposition expected this situation.”
“I believe the shock and impact of it is still affecting all. No persons/public interest are not negatively impacted by this judgment. Goa had compliance (of the SC directives) higher and superior to any other state in India, now and always prior, yet we are in his depressed situation,” he said.
Responding to a question for industry’s opposition for auctioning of the mining leases, Timbo said “the provision for auctioning is provided for in the (Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation) act in a very detailed manner and is very clear on when it would be applicable.
“It is not applicable at this stage to the cases in Goa,” he added.
This is second big blow to the industry, which had faced closure in the year 2012 following SC’s directives. The apex court had taken cognizance of the M B Shah commission report which had claimed that there was illegal mining worth Rs 35,000 crore in the State between the year 2005-2012.
The industry remained banned for nearly 19 months from October 2012 to April 2014 when the SC finally allowed the industry to operate imposing several riders. The restriction of extracting only 20 million metric tonnes was also imposed on the industry, which had double the capacity to tap the ore before SC ban on it in the year 2012.
After SC ban, it took another 18 months for the industry to actually start the extraction as the first fresh extraction took place in October 2015. The industry could not come to its full glory after resumption as during the fiscal 2015-16, hardly 7.2 million metric tonnes of the ore being extracted.
The figures available from the Department of Mines and Geology indicates that 37.11 million metric tonnes of ore was extracted from the time ban was lifted till date bringing in revenue of Rs 1,243.54 crore.
