Sawant to take up mining issue during Amit Shah’s visit

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will hold a meeting on the contentious iron ore mining resumption issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his visit to Goa. Shah will be chairing the 24th meeting of Western Zone Council to be held in Panjim on August 22. The council, functioning under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ Inter-State Council Secretariat, comprises of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haveli. The issue related to Home Ministry in the Centre and also respective States will be discussed during the meeting, he said. 
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While the schedule of Shah’s visit is still awaited, Sawant said he will hold a discussion with Shah on the mining resumption issue. "There will be detailed discussion on mining. What exactly I can't tell but it is for immediate resumption of the activities in the State," he said. 
Shah had last month spearheaded yet another joint attempt of the Centre and the Goa government for restarting the mining activity in Goa. He had chaired a high-level meeting, which was attended by five Union Ministers: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Mines Minister Prahlad Joshi, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railway and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Sawant, Chief Secretary Parimal Rai, Mines Secretary Daulat Hawaldar amongst others were also present. Shah had then directed Union Mines Ministry to revisit the entire issue and submit report within eight days. A follow up meeting on the issue is expected now when Shah will be in Goa. 

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