Goa mining: CM welcomes Pawar's intervention, BJP sees red

Panaji: Even as Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar welcomed union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s assurance to mediate between those affected by stalled mining activity and the Centre, his party, the BJP, slammed the NCP chief for “politicising” the issue. “I have full faith in Pawar to resolve the crisis. He will take up the issue with Centre in all seriousness. Pawar’s intervention can help to resolve the mining issue,” Parrikar told reporters hours before the BJP organised a press conference criticising Pawar. [caption id=“attachment_615043” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sharad Pawar. Agencies.[/caption] Pawar had met and assured pro-mining agitators yesterday, holding chain sit-in protests under the banner of Goa Mining Affected People’s Front (AMAPF), at Azad maidan in Panaji, that he would seek to convene a meeting of the concerned ministries over resumption of mining activity. Slamming Pawar, BJP spokesman Dr Pramod Sawant told reporters that the minister’s assurance of heading an all party delegation to Delhi was “unwarranted”. “Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has already decided to lead an all-party delegation to Delhi, at an appropriate time… NCP is merely trying to politicise the issue,” Sawant said. On the BJP’s joining the cause of the people affected by closure of mining in the coastal state following an interim ban imposed by the Supreme Court on transportation and extraction of ore in Goa, Sawant said, “BJP legislators are with the agitators since beginning, sympathising with their cause.” The apex court had asked the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to conduct detailed investigation into illegal mining in Goa, resulting in halt of activity in all the 90-odd mining leases in the state. Sawant said the state government had already filed a full proof affidavit in the Supreme Court presenting complete picture about the mining industry. “If at all Pawar wants to help people affected with the mining closure, he should try to get a financial package for them from the Centre, demanded by the state government,” he added. PTI