The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Two questions have been raised by the national council against the ministry of economic affairs regarding the mining activities in the country. This first is will the mining activities and issuance of mining licenses resume or be on halt and what are the plans of the government to pass the rules and guidelines of mining activities which is in accordance to the Constitution.
Lyonpo Loknath Sharma replied that the GDP of the country has gone down (negative 81.4 for mining activities) but the reason for that is not because of the halt in mining activities.
Lyonpo said that the mines and minerals management Act 1995 did not have clauses that went against the Constitution and that the confusion could be caused by Mines and Minerals Regulation Act 2002 and The Mineral Development Policy 2007.
Regarding the plans of the ministry, Lyonpo said that if the mining activities and issuance of licenses is halted just because the mines and minerals bill has not been formulated, it will have adverse effect on the economy of the nation. Lyonpo said that the responsibility of keeping mining activities in check falls on him and the government plans to resume the mining activities.
Lyonpo said as he will not go against the constitution, and he has talked to various committees, policy and planning division as well as cabinet regarding the progress of mining activities to ensure that it benefits the country and its people.
