Goa mining delegation: Cong leader says colleague kept party

A senior Congress leader today called the plan to send an all party delegation to the Centre to discuss the state's mining woes a "farce".
Senior Congress leader Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco added that Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, who was part of the meeting which had agreed on an all party delegation to Delhi, had not taken the Congress into confidence before committing to it.
"Neither the Congress Legislative Party nor the regional Congress committee is aware of this all party delegation. He has not dicussed anything with us. Whatever we have learnt about this delegation is from the media," Lourenco said.

It was decided in a meeting chaired by senior minister Sudin Dhavalikar on March 1 to take an all party delegation to Delhi on Monday to meet Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to discuss the issues facing the mining sector.
A recent Supreme Court judgment quashed 88 mining leases and also ordered that no fresh extraction of iron ore would be permitted after March 15.
"The all party delegation is just a farce. It is an attempt to allow mining leases to operate by renewing them rather than auctioning them as recommended by the Supreme Court," he said.

Lourenco, a legislator from Curtorim constituency and Congress' whip on the floor of the House, added that renewing leases was not in favour of the state.
He alleged that BJP led government had been systematically finishing the state's mining industry since 2012 in order to protect the interests of a few mining giants.
"It is playing with the livelihood of innocent people who are dependent on this industry," he said.