Digital Goa, Jan 15- All 86 mining leases will be auctioned by the government within next 3 months, informed CM Pramod Sawant. He was speaking at the function organised for distribution of letter of intent to 4 successful bidders of recently held mining auctions. The leases have been granted for a period of 50 years. Sawant said that govt will soon come up with a Dump mining policy to auction all the low grade ore dumps which are lying inside and outside mining lease areas. CM also urged the new mining lease holders to employ their previous staff in a phased manner as per the requirement and to ensure that no injustice is meted out on them. Govt will emphasize on ‘sustainable mining’ without damaging the environment, he added.
If mining leases were renewed on time, environmentalist would not got opportunity to move Courts
If mining lease renewals were done in 2007 to 2012 period for the next 25 years, no one would call them illegal and ‘so called environmentalists’ would have not got an opportunity to move the courts over the matter, Sawant claimed. Mining lease holders may have removed some extra ore, but it was the responsibility of the then govt to monitor, he added.
External forces working to prevent economic growth of Goa
Sawant reiterated his earlier claims that some external forces are working to prevent the economic growth of the state while referring to opposition to mining, Mopa and other developmental projects.
