Mining imbroglio, declining tourism key issues at hand
the goan I network
PANAJI
Having passed the political test of elections to the two Lok Sabha seats and by-elections to the four Assembly seats fairly well, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant now faces the real challenge of governing the State and transitioning the administration into action mode in the next few months.
The administration having suffered a policy paralysis, first owing to his predecessor Manohar Parrikar’s debilitating and fatal fight against advanced pancreatic cancer and now due to the Model Code of Conduct, Sawant will be hard pressed to exhibit promptness in decision making to resolve some long-pending problems, including the mining imbroglio and a declining tourism industry. Untested on the governance front, Sawant has already shown signs of initiating the first credible moves to revive the paralysed mining industry which was banned by the Supreme Court in March last year.
His government has identified some 18 leases and already granted the owner of one of them -- Nathurlal Mines at Harvalem -- the permission to proceed with securing Central government nod, including environmental clearances so that actual mining can start in the new season post the monsoon. This, sources in the industry say, is a mere baby step in the enormous task of taking the sector to the level it was before the February 2018 ban imposed by the
Apex Court.
The bigger challenge for Sawant’s government is at the policy level to overcome the curbs of the new central law governing the grant of leases exclusively through the public auction route, which the big boys in the local industry is averse to fearing unfair competition from bigger
national players.
Managing the State’s finances, seemingly in the red owing to disruption of revenues due to the mining crisis and the Central government’s GST roll out, is another key area where the inexperienced Sawant will be challenged to show results.
At his first press conference after the fairly favourable poll results on Friday, Sawant had indicated that his government will resort to passing another set of grants and a vote-on-account for the balance eight months of the current fiscal beyond July 31 by holding a monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly.
The late Parrikar, braving his health condition, had held a brief 3-day session to present the budget on January 30 sans any discussion in the House. A four-month vote on account to defray government expenditure up to July 31, was also passed in that session.
The legislative business of government finance apart,
