Goa must send detailed plan to restart mining

23 july 2018

Goa Mining People’s Front president Mr Puti Gaonkar as saying that union mines minister Mr Narendra Singh Tomar said the Goa state government should send a detailed proposal to restart mining operations in the state. Mining activities in Goa came to a halt on March 15 following the apex court order on February.

President of GMPF, Mr Puti Gaonkar, Rajya Sabha member of parliament and BJP state unit president Vinay Tendulkar, Union Ayush minister Shripad Naik, along with others, met Mr Tomar and submitted a memorandum to the minister to resume mining activities in the state.

Mr Gaonkar informed Mr Tomar that the iron ore mining industry in Goa is more than 100 years old, permitted by the then Portuguese regime. In fact, iron ore mining was allowed by the Portuguese under mining concessions way back in the year 1905. GMPF also informed Tomar that the first mining manifest was given in 1905 to Aly Ismail Mirsa Bagdad, a Turk from Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), to mine an area at Domingod-Molem near Colem. In 1910, a French company, Compagnie de Mines de Fer de Goa, made plans to extract manganese ore from the Bicholim area. Thereafter, the government granted 591 mining concessions up to December 18, 1961. Another six mining concessions were granted in the year 1963. The Mines and Minerals (Regulation & Development) Act, 1957, was enforced at that time.

GMPF informed Mr Tomar that mining is the largest employment generator in Goa, with close to 60,000 persons earning their livelihood through various avenues associated with the mining industry. The Supreme Court judgement directly impacts around 3,00,000 people in the state. Mining has played and continues to play a vital role in Goa’s economic development. Goa’s iron ore mining industry has been one of the biggest earners of foreign exchange to the state exchequer, GMPF said.

Source: TNN