For Goa, our lost paradise there is finally some good news with the mining issue now being under the very close surveillance and scanner of the Supreme Court. We would have otherwise been at the mercy of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and his legal messiah Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni who have both gone off their rockers and are now mentally unbalanced having been unable to gift those pricy iron ore dumps to their mining Lords. They are in utter distress after having failed to pocket their eagerly awaited windfall. Thanks to the very cautious and alert firm stand taken by the Supreme Court Judges, those dirty tricks did not work at the Supreme Court. With the Supreme Court having foiled the devious plans of the Manohar Parrikar Government, it has been Goa’s gain.
The flamboyant Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni with all that dubious flair failed to sway and swing the Supreme Court. The three member bench of the Supreme Court must have sensed and smelt the deceitful plan of the Goa Government to further carry on with the mining loot. The Judges must have read between the lines and might have even wondered whether Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni was defending the Government or in connivance rescuing the mining barons who have ravaged Goa over the last many years especially in the last decade. To now dispose the iron ore mining dumps the Supreme Court has very rightly disallowed the Monitoring Committee proposed by the Goa Government and has instead appointed its own. The Court smartly also rejected the public auction proposed by the Manohar Parrikar Government and has instead decided that “E-auction” was the best route to dispose the already stacked iron ore. Not wanting to eat humble pie, the ego ridden Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar now deviously claims that what the government desired was what the Supreme Court granted. Mr. Parrikar, you can fool some people some time but you cannot fool the people all the time. Mr. Chief Minister, the arguments of the State, were surely with your knowledge and approval which is contrary to the claims now made. The Supreme Court will eventually decide as to how the mining activity will be carried out in Goa. When it resumes, it will for sure be a very organized and extremely legal affair, all monitored by the Supreme Court. The ugly mining madness that we have seen in the past is history. The State’s resources could never have been plundered and looted in such a high-handed manner to the benefit of a few. We need to laud and salute Claude and Norma Alvares along with their team at the Goa Foundation for having toiled tirelessly over the years to arrest illegal mining. Their efforts are finally bearing fruit. A ray of hope for the coming generations who will now at least be able to see something that remains of Goa. Our Goa, which was once the paradise of the East, now lies at crossroads for posterity. Aires Rodrigues T1 - B30, Ribandar Retreat Ribandar - Goa - 403006 Mobile: 9822684372
