By IANS,
Panaji: The Rs.6,000 crore open cast mining industry in Goa should be nationalised to conserve the country’s national resources, veteran trade union leader and Congress Rajya Sabha MP G. Sanjeeva Reddy said Monday.
Speaking to reporters at the party office here, Reddy, the president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and vice president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), said that the more than 100-odd privately-held iron, manganese and bauxite ore mines were lining the pockets of a few, while depleting the nation’s resources.
“The government should take over these mines immediately. It will benefit crores, rather than the private businessmen who are exporting ore to China. Ore is a national resource, it should not be exported,” said Reddy, who is also a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Exporting raw, unprocessed ore to a competing nation like China amounted to reckless squandering of national resources and nationalization of mines and taking them away from petty private entrepreneurs was the only way to conserve a national resource, he added.
“All this raw ore is being exported to China. We have ore stocks which will last for about 50 to 60 years. After that we will have to import ore. This mindless export must stop immediately,” Reddy said, adding that the central government must first ban the export of ore and then nationalise the Goa mining industry.
Tourism apart, mining for low grade iron ore and manganese is one of the principal industries in the state, fetching nearly Rs.6,000 crore revenue from exporting the ore to countries like China, Korea and Japan.
The mining industry in Goa is largely in private hands, after large tracts of forest land in the interior north eastern and south western forests were leased out to private individuals for the purpose of mining by the colonial Portuguese rulers.
The leases were later inherited by their descendants in the post-liberation era. There are presently 100 mining leases in Goa, most of which are operated by powerful families namely, the Dempos, Salgaonkars, Timblos, and Sesa Goa, a Vedanta Resources-owned company etc. The 100 mines export nearly 30 million tones of iron ore annually.