Goa mining crisis: Decision taken to be recommended to Parrikar
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VIJAI SPEAKS OVER PHONE
WITH PARRIKAR IN THE US
* TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai speaks with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar over telephone
* Vijai discusses the mining issue and urgent need to discuss it at Cabinet Advisory Committee
* The Chief Minister gives his go-ahead for the convening of the CAC meeting today (Wednesday)
* The Cabinet Committee will only lay stress on the mining issue and how to evolve a solution
* The meeting is slated for 3.30 pm today in the Cabinet room, Minister’s Block, Porvorim.
* Decision taken at the meeting will be recommended to the Chief Minister in US for vetting
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PANAJI: Going back to the Supreme Court is an option the Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC) will deliberate and recommend to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today (Wednesday), even as TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai spoke at length with the Chief Minister over telephone on Tuesday.
The Cabinet Advisory Committee meeting has been convened by the Chief Secretary after the TCP
Minister discussed the mining crisis staring the state with the Chief Minister and the need for the
Cabinet Advisory Committee to meet urgently and make recommendations, including going back to the Supreme Court since the current crisis has been brought about by the Judgement of the Apex Court delivered on February 7.
Following the TCP Minister’s telephonic discussions with the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary has convened a meeting of the Cabinet Advisory Committee on March 14 at 3.30 pm in the Cabinet room, Minister’s Block, Porvorim. Although the meeting notice is silent on the agenda that will be deliberated at the meeting, sources said the CAC is expected to discuss the single point agenda pertaining to the mining crisis hovering over the state. Sources further said that after the CAC comprising of the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavlikar, TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai and Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza takes a decision at the meeting, the same will be recommended to the Chief Minister for vetting.
Sources in the know said the CAC may also take a call on seeking legal opinion from various legal experts, and if necessary to engage a senior most lawyer to represent the state in the Supreme Court on the mining issue.
When contacted, the TCP Minister told that he spoke to the Chief Minister over phone and discussed with him the burning mining issue and the urgent need to discuss the issue at the Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC) on Wednesday. “The Chief Minister gave his go-ahead for the convening of the CAC meeting. The CAC will only lay stress on the mining issue and how to evolve a solution. Since the crisis has been brought about by the February 7 order of the Supreme Court, it is in the fitness of things that the government go back to the Apex Court and present its case in to to, including the issue of mining dependents and how the shut-down of the mining operations will affect a whole lot of stakeholders,” Sardesai said.
The TCP Minister said the Cabinet cannot sit quite when the mining crisis looms large, adding that the Cabinet will have to play its role, discuss the issue at length and make recommendation to the Chief Minister. “The agenda for tomorrow’s meeting is certainly mining and we will have to give the issue the attention it deserves. It is a big issue affecting over 12,000 truck owners and one and half families. The issue is of mammoth proportions”, he said, while making clear that the issue is not of the government making, but has arisen following the Supreme Court order.
He said members of the coalition are on the job to purse the issue in Delhi, saying that Sudin Dhavlikar, a member of the CAC is in touch with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on the matter. “We will see that though the issue has cropped up because of the Supreme Court order, no injustice is done to the Goa people,” he said, adding that the government will have to take the matter to the right forum and seek redressal.
