“We want the Mining Act to be amended”

Two years ago, on March 18, 2019, the 47-year-old PRAMOD SAWANT, an ayurvedic doctor-turned-politician, had the difficult task of stepping into the very big shoes of Manohar Parrikar, who had passed away the previous day. At the time, the BJP was in a minority in the Goa government, Sawant had no administrative experience and no one to guide him, the other two influential leaders—Laxmikant Parsekar and Rajendra Arlekar—having lost the state election two years ago. Goa’s economy was already precarious, after the Supreme Court cancelled 88 mining leases in February 2018, inflicting an annual loss of Rs 1,000 crore since then. The arrival of Covid-19 in March 2020 dealt a further blow as national and international travel restrictions hit its other mainstay—tourism. Goa’s debt has risen from Rs 12,395 crore in March 2017 to Rs 18,444 crore