Priest applauds Supreme Court ruling on Goa mines

By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy

Panaji: A Catholic priest, who uses youth power to promote agriculture and protect Goa from polluting mines, has welcomed the Supreme Court upholding its earlier order of cancellation of mining leases in the western Indian state.

“People of India can still trust judiciary that it will not allow our Constitution to be sabotaged,” Father Bolmax Fidelis Pereira, parish priest at St Francis Xavier Church, Chicalim, told Matters India July 21, reacting to the apex court move.

The Supreme Court has dismissed review petitions filed by the Goa government and Vedanta Limited against a 2018 order cancelling the state’s move to renew 88 mining leases.

The apex court cited the delay in filing them and a lack of cogent grounds for canceling its earlier order. The Goa government filed four review petitions after a delay of 650 days and Vedanta Limited ons after a delay of 907 days, the court observed.

It also expressed displeasure over the timings of the pleas. The court noted Goa filed them after one of the two judges, who passed the 2018 order, retired and Vedanta when both had retired.

In February 2018, the court cancelled the renewals issued in 2015, saying they were granted in haste and without application of mind.

“In accordance with Rule 2 of Order XLVII of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, an application for review of a judgment has to be filed within thirty days of the date of the judgment or order that is sought to be reviewed. No cogent grounds have been furnished for the delay between 20 and 26 months by the two parties in filing their applications for review,” a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah said in their July 9 order.

Father Pereira says he “passionately” hopes that the Supreme Court will help usher a new sustainable mining policy under the expertise of the Goa Foundation.

He asserted the people of Goa are the “real heirs of the natural resources of our land, water and forest” and that the “victory is ours when we sincerely fight to protect them.”

According to him, successive governments in Goa have “terribly failed and fooled” their people.

Father Pereira, who is also the assistant professor of Botany at St Joseph Vaz College in Cortalim, had earlier created waves in Goa getting his youth group engaged in environmental protection and revival of agriculture.

The Goa Foundation and four other petitioners had moved the top court challenging the renewal of leases in 2015. They had questioned the renewal instead of issuing fresh leases, absence of an auction and violations in the renewal of the environmental clearances.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the state government would “honor” the Supreme Court’s verdict. However, he said his government is “very serious about resuming mining activities” and has asked the director of mines to work on it. “Some leases will be through corporation and some will through auction. We will do this at the earliest,” Sawant said.

Father Pereira is among people from celebrities to politicians, who have joined the ‘Save Mollem’ campaign. The dense evergreen forests of Mollem, 60 km south of Goa’s capital of Panaji, support thousands of indigenous people and abound with a huge diversity of wildlife: tigers, leopards, gaur, and over 200 species of birds.

They also happen to be the site of three proposed infrastructure projects — a highway expansion, the double-tracking of a railway line, and a power transmission line — which if initiated could mean the felling of over 30,000 trees, irreversibly impacting this rich ecosystem.

In an earlier interview with Matters India, Father explained why he channelized youth power for environmental protection. “Youth are not just the future of Goa, but they are also the NOW as the future belongs to them,” he said.

His first move was to introduce youth to farming. “The lockdown provided a good opportunity. The migrant laborers had returned to their native places leaving Goa and the cultivation undone. Our youth came forward to support the farmers to cultivate paddy and later to help harvesting. For the youth, the emerging farmers, it was a learning process and for the regular farmers it was a much needed support. Some youth were from farming families.”

The youth realized coal dust from the mines carried by wind hindered the pollination of paddy. They appealed to the government to call off three linear projects through Mollem forests in south Goa.

According to Father Pereira, the three linear projects were hurriedly approved during the pandemic by the federal and state governments. “These projects will adversely affect the rich biodiversity and wildlife of Mollem National Park and Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary. It will also affect Goa’s waterways,” the priest warns.

He doubling of railway line was to help coal transport Goa’s Mormugoa Port to Karnataka. “The uncovered coal beds at the port and the transportation through rail, road and waterways will bring about a lot of pollution. Over 80,000 trees are marked out for felling for the setting up of these 3 linear projects which will severely affect the wildlife and greenery of Goa,” he asserted.