Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced on Friday that sustainable iron ore mining in Goa would resume once his party is voted to power at the Centre after the elections. Iron ore extraction and transportation came to a standstill in Goa in March 2018 after a Supreme Court order that quashed 88 mining leases.
"The closure of mining has affected lakhs of people. We have decided that the Congress party will start sustainable mining in Goa once it is voted to power after the 2019 elections," Gandhi said while addressing "Jeet Ki Aur", a booth-level convention of Congress workers.
The people who are dependent on mining have demanded that existing laws should be amended to give a new lease of life to the industry, a key source of revenue for the government.
Gandhi claimed that tourism in Goa was adversely affected after the 2016 demonetization of high-value currencies. He further alleged that the PM is busy making Goa a coal center to help his crony capitalists.
He further took a dig at the PM by saying that employment has disappeared from Goa along with tourism.
Referring to the Congress booth-level workers as the backbone of the party, Gandhi claimed that there is no dearth of issues for them to raise among voters while campaigning for the upcoming elections.