PANAJI: The Aam Aadmi Party in Goa today opposed the state government's decision to lead an all-party delegation to the Centre to discuss the state's mining woes.
The party said that the decision to go to Delhi was "yet another instance of the deep level friendship between the BJP and the Congress at the cost of the common man."
An all-party meeting yesterday, chaired by senior state minister Sudin Dhavalikar, had decided to meet Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday to seek solutions to its mining woes.
A recent Supreme Court judgment had quashed 88 mining leases in the state asking them to stop fresh extraction of iron ore from March 15.
"The idea of taking an all-party delegation to Delhi is yet another instance of the deep level of friendship between the BJP, Congress and partner parties.
They are out to sell the interests of the state to favour a few at the cost of the common man," said AAP Goa spokesman Siddharth Karapurkar.
He added that the absence of a responsible opposition in the state was becoming increasingly visible.
Karapurkar alleged that a few MLAs of both parties, who have stakes in the mining industry, were getting together in the name of an all-party delegation.
"AAP, which is fundamentally based on the tenet of Swaraj, demands that this delegation first spell out their course of dialogue with the people of the state who have a right to know what will be discussed.
They should tell the people the advantages/disadvantages of such a move," he said.
Karapurkar said that mining wealth belongs to the people and should be distributed equally and, therefore, AAP had suggested cooperative mining as a solution.
He alleged that the all-party delegation was carrying the brief of a few people, as payback, for political funding they received from mining wealth.