Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that the state is expecting to restart the mining activity from next month onwards.
In an interview on Rajya Sabha television channel which was telecasted on Sunday, Sawant said his government is expecting that Supreme court will give relief during the hearing on mining in April (2020) after which the extraction of iron ore would restart in the state.
“We are hoping that the legal extraction of ore will start from April onwards,” he commented.
The mining industry in Goa has come to a standstill after the top court quashed 88 mining leases in February, 2018.
Sawant said that the attempts are on to restart the mining in a legal way. “We have already received a relief when SC allowed the royalty paid ore which is piled up at different places to be exported from the state,” he said.
He said that once SC allows extraction of ore, the state government’s vision will have to have “sustainable mining” in the state.
The chief minister also said that 90 per cent of infrastructure development in the state would be completed by the year 2022 which includes Greenfield airport at Mopa in North Goa and completion of National Highway project.
Sawant said that all the infrastructure works which are currently undergoing in Goa would be completed by 2022.
Hailing his own budget which he placed on February 06 in the House, Sawant said the even opposition parties were left with no issue to criticize the financial statement (budget).
“The focus of my budget was common man. We targeted revenue collection without pinching common man. There was no rise in the tax on common man,” he said.
While doing it, he said, the budget continued with the social welfare schemes which were existing in the state. “Despite all this, we have presented revenue surplus budget,” he commented.
Sawant admitted that “the biggest challenge before him was to generate revenue for the state.”
