After the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Congress on Wednesday attacked Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar accusing him of being responsible for the prevailing 18-months-old mining ban in the State.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters here, Congress Rajya Sabha MP and AICC Secretary Shantaram Naik drew the attention to the State government's order issued on September 10,
2012, in the aftermath of the Justice(retd.) M. B. Shah Commission report on illegal mining in the State, which brought the entire mining operations to a standstill.
It was only after this decision of the State government that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)
issued an order under the environment Protection Act on September 14 to suspend the mining leases which eventually paved the way for the Supreme Court's interim ban order on October 5, 2012, he said.
Pointing out Mr. Parrikar's statements in his State annual Budget speech recently that 50,000 people directly or indirectly dependent on mining got affected due to mining ban, that the State lost 20 per cent GDP and Rs.2,000 crores of revenue over the ban period, Mr. Naik held BJP leader solely responsible for these losses and accused him of unnecessarily blaming Congress Government at the Centre for the same.
On Tuesday, CPI leader Christopher Fonseca had attacked the Chief Minister of being solely responsible for closure of mines in Goa. In response to Mr. Parrikar's statement on Monday distancing himself from the mining ban, the CPI also accused the ruling BJP of not being interested in re-opening the mines in Goa.
The Aam Aadmi Party has already called for the taking over of the extraction of iron ore in Goa by the State, doing away the private sector mining based on leases.
The mining ban is emerging as one of the crucial issues in the parliamentary election to be held on April 12.
