Mining magnate sparks controversy in Lisbon - Herald

Mining magnate sparks controversy in Lisbon ‘ Goa has too many problems, judiciary overactive’ DEvIkA SEquEIRA teamherald@ herald- goa. com PANJIM: Leading Goan mine owner Auduth Timblo of the Fomento Group struck a note of discord at the Semana da Cultura Indo- Portuguesa held in Lisbon over the past fortnight to promote cultural and business ties between Goa and Portugal, sending out the message to a convention of Portuguese investors that they would perhaps be better off not coming to Goa because it had too many problems, an overactive judiciary, and an intellectual class that stood in the way of most development in the State. Apparently smarting from the total shutdown of iron ore mining in Goa following the Supreme Court order, Timblo said: “ We have an overworked and underpaid judiciary coming in the form of judicial activism. The first thing ( they say) is stop, stop. I will check and the verification continues for a long time.” Such an attitude, the Goan mineowner told a roomful of businessmen from a PIGS country that’s reeling under its worst debt crisis, was digressing from the real problem in India which is the “ evil of unemployment”. Painting a grim picture of the country (“ a quarter million suffer from malnutrition and deprivation”) and Goa in particular even as the Ambassador to Portugal Brij Tyagi, Goa’s Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, NRI Commissioner Wilfred Mesquita and the rest of the Goan delegation squirmed in their seats, Timblo said the entire mining industry in Goa had been shut down and claimed “ 30 per cent of Goans are unemployed. That’s the reality, I don’t know what next”. “ Until 1992, India had redtape. These days it has the green tape,” the hotelier- ore exporter lamented, underscoring the point that "The first thing ( they say) is stop, stop. I will check and the verification continues for a long time. Such an attitude was digressing from the real problem in India which is the “ evil of unemployment”. the deputy chief minister’s speech had stressed on “ Green, green, green”. Timblo implied that while other Indian speakers who had preceded him ~ Tyagi, D’- Souza and businessman Anil Counto among others ~ had painted a rosy picture of the Goan investment climate, he preferred to “ speak from the heart” and caution Portuguese investors of the “ dangers” that awaited them in Goa. “ Everyone will say welcome, welcome. But don’t be misled. Goa is a very nice place it’s also a very terrible place. We have a lot of problems of the haves and have- nots and the have- nots are agitating. With massive unemployment in the intellectual class, you have an agitation.” Some frantic signaling from the Indian delegation fi- nally got the Fomento boss to wind up his “ straight from the heart” outpouring before a 30- strong Portuguese trade delegation led by Goan origin businessman Nelson D’Souza. “ Unfortunately, I had spoken before him and couldn’t do much to stem the damage,” Dy CM D’Souza told Herald. He said while he concurs with some of the points raised, specifically that India does have a track record of bureaucratic red- tape for foreign investors, there was “ no need to publicly say so” and create an embarrassment. D’Souza said he was keen to get across the message to potential investors that anyone wanting to set up industry in Goa would have to follow the environment laws. “ I told them our NGOs are very environment- conscious and favour Green industry and we have to respect that, just as the decisions of the courts have to be honoured.” Which country doesn’t have its own problems, he asked. Mesquita said he had been taken aback by the very emotional tone of the mine owner’s speech. “ What was the point? One does not go abroad and retch out everything like this. It was completely unnecessary,” he said. The Shiv Sena’s former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu who was there as a special invitee ( of Counto’s) proved “ the saving grace” ( in Mesquita’s words) and set the discussion back on course, listing India’s many plus points in the changing global scenario. While many Semana committee members were appalled at Timblo taking off, saying they thought it was “ in bad taste”, Advocate Zilman Coelho Pereira said he saw nothing wrong in Timblo cautioning the Portuguese: “ All he’s saying is, know what the problems are before you invest in India.” The criticism was nothing more than politics, he said. D’Souza said Goa was in a position to push forward for more trade with Portugal given that so many Goan origin persons were in high positions there. Apart from Nelson D’Souza and the mayor of Lisbon, Antonio da Costa, there were a number of other Goans in Lisbon this State could leverage.