The mining crisis is turning into an administrative and political chaos in the state of Goa, in the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. On Monday, various associations of the sector held state capital Panjim to ransom for five hours, to protest against the Supreme Court-enforced shutdown of mining activity in the state. Demonstrations turned ugly, despite prohibitory orders, as police in Goa lathi-charged mining-dependents. While declaring the mines illegal on February 7, the SC had granted the state six weeks to shut them down. Parrikar took ill and had to be rushed to hospital a week later. At least a lakh people in the state are directly dependent on the sector, which contributes 20 per cent to state revenues directly. The crisis comes at a time when the state is missing its CM, who is undergoing treatment for a pancreas-related ailment in the US. “Is this a government?” asks five-time former CM, and one of the state’s senior-most legislators, Pratasingh Raoji Rane. The Congressman is the latest to question Goa’s current governance model in the absence of a CM. “The basic principle of good management is delegation. You cannot be running a government via remote control,” Rane told ET.It is a year since the BJP-led coalition government came to power – during which it has had to deal with a crippling taxi drivers’ strike, was accused of allowing river nationalisation, making yet another u-turn on the Mhadei river dispute, and finally, bringing upon itself this mining crisis.It is not unusual for Goa to end up with cobbled coalitions; it is the norm. The BJP with 14 members is completely at the mercy of its coalition partners. In an assembly of 40 seats the Congress has 16 MLAs. The parties that lent it support — Ramakrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar’s Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party and Vijai Sardesai’s Goa Forward — were clear it was only on condition Parrikar, the then Defence Minister, was leading them. Ever since March 6, when the CM left for the US, concerns over who really is in charge have been growing. Parrikar holds more than 20 portfolios, including home, finance, industries, mines and general administration. He left behind a Cabinet Advisory Committee with only powers to make recommendations – as it was forced to do when mining – an activity that directly contributes 20 per cent to revenues – came to a grinding halt on March 15th.CAC members MGP’s Dhavalikar and GF’s Sardesai have spent much of last week assuring people that the government was not in danger. While Sardesai told ET, he has “no plans to unseat Parrikar’s government while the CM was recovering”, Dhavalikar strongly denied rumours of him merging his party with the BJP. The third member is senior BJP leader Francis D’Souza who has been made charge of the party’s legislative wing. “Where is the problem? In today’s age of mobiles, emails and video conferencing, communication is not a problem. There are 11 other ministers, with three portfolios each, doing their jobs,” he said. He did concede, time zones were a problem. Like many of his colleagues, D’Souza too has not spoken to the CM since he left to avoid disturbing him over small issues. Parrikar’s office says he is “responding well to treatment” but may now only return in mid-April by when the CAC’s term would have ended. D’Souza though agrees with Rane, that the situation they face vis-a-vis mining was a serious one. “More than a lakh affected, of a populations of 15 lakhs, is a lot of people. One must also remember that they have already gone through a difficult three years (between 2012-2015) when mining had been halted,” he said. AICC secretary and Goa desk in charge, Dr A Chellkumar says, BJP has only itself to blame. “The SC was very clear on who was responsible, for the illegal renewals. Now let them answer to the people,” he says. The renewals were carried out during Parrikar-Parsekar governments despite a mineral policy that stated they would rather auction mineral rights. Now that auction is mandatory, Goa’s leases cannot be reinstated without legislative amendments. Even if the state’s influential mining lobby chooses not to litigate, auctioned mines will take years to start. A prospect that has BJP’s legislator Nilesh Cabral, from the mining constituency of Curchorem so upset, that he joined in Monday’s protest, only to be injured. Environmental activist Claude Alvares from the Goa Foundation, the NGO petitioner of the case shares some of the concerns. “Someone has to take a decision on what is the next course of action. It is also unfair for the state to expect a man undergoing treatment to be making that call,” said Alvares who had his effigy burnt inMonday’s protest. The NGO, is against auctions, and has mooted the idea of setting up a state-run corporation that can carry out mining.