Panaji: The closure of Iron Ore mining industry in Goa since last eight months has severely impacted the economy with the consumer market slumping in the hinterland and workers staring at job loses, the stakeholders said.
Supreme Court in its order on February 07, 2018 had quashed 88 mining leases, who had to wind up their operations from March 16, 2018 onwards, bringing to halt the entire industry.
State’s Senior minister Sudin Dhavalikar last week had told reporters that the revenue to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore is lost monthly due to ceasing of the mining industry, which has also impacted around 2.5 lakh people.
“The revenue source is shrinking right now due to closure of mining. We are losing around 1,500 crore every month. The resumption of industry is necessitated to save the State from facing economic slowdown,” he had said.
While the State government foresee huge impact of mining closure, the industry body, Federation of Indian Minerals Industries, fear that the economy in the coastal has begun unwinding.
“If you calculate the total impact, almost 25 per cent of total State’s economy has been impacted due to mining closure. In the long run, the economy will continue to unwind, and it will have disastrous impact,” Haresh Melwani, FIMI’s Managing Committee member and a Mine Owner from Goa, said on Thursday.
He said that Rs 6,000 crore of ‘fresh money’ was being injected monthly into State’s economy through exports of iron ore, which has stopped now. “This was helping the country to earn foreign exchange in a big way. The stoppage of Iron Ore exports have stopped this money from flowing in the State,” he said.
While Economic slowdown is one of the concern, the workers are looking at the job loses due to closure of the industry.
Goa Mining People’s Front, a union of the mining dependents, has said that total 4,000-5,000 people who were employed with various mining firms have lost their jobs in addition to another 6,000 truck drivers.
“The markets in Goa’s mining belts are deserted. People’s are controlling their spending as they don’t know when exactly, the industry would resume,” GMPF President Puti Gaonkar said.
He said that if mining fails to resume, there would be economic catastrophe in the State.
The industry sources claimed that the total investment to the tune of Rs 7,500 crore has gone into the mining industry which includes core mining, transport businesses and other infrastructure.
