NEW DELHI: The Goa Mining People's Front (GMPF), which represents the cause of lakhs of people employed in the mining sector, on Tuesday said it has appealed to the central government to facilitate the immediate resumption of mining in Goa.
This comes at a time when the mining ban in Goa has completed four years.
"As the Goa mining ban completes four years, the Goa Mining People's Front. has appealed to the government at the Centre and the newly elected MLA's in the state to facilitate the immediate resumption of mining," it said in a statement.
The iron ore industry in Goa came to a standstill after the Supreme Court quashed 88 mining leases in February 2018, affecting the livelihoods of over three lakh mining dependents in the state with over 75,000 jobs in the state.
"The state government has been promising the resumption of mining activities since he took over the charge as the chief minister and has made umpteen attempts to convince the central leadership for a solution but the attempt has not yielded any results yet," the statement said.
The central BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, have again assured the solution within six months resolving the Goa mining stalemate during the recent election campaigning.
"The GMPF now demands that the promise of a solution within six months be treated as an agenda to deliver and not just another election gimmick like in the past," it said.
Now that the party has got a second term, the GMPF has urged the government to immediately act in the matter as it has bearing on the livelihoods of three lakh people.
"Goa mining dependents have completed four years of financial turmoil and have eroded all the savings. It is unfortunate that the livelihood plea of over three lakh people is simply ignored by the central government for the last four years."
"Nearly 90 per cent of mining dependent people are in acute financial difficulty with 100 per cent loss of income or are earning a paltry sum that's not what they deserve," GMPF President Puti Gaonkar said.
Gaonkar added that the elections are now over and concrete solutions need to be discussed across the table along with concerned stakeholders including employees, truck owners, barge owners, and mining service providers.