Team Herald
MARGAO: The Bharat Mukti Morcha’s (BMM) Goa unit has thrown its weight behind the farmers and villagers of Pilgao, Bicholim, who had recently staged a multi-day blockade against iron ore transportation through their paddy fields.
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“The bold step of the farmers and villagers of Pilgao found support from the State administration after the Director of Mines admitted that the mining company has no dedicated road of its own to transport iron ore in trucks,” said Dr Sebastiao Rodrigues, BMM State Convenor.
Rodrigues alleged that the mining company’s Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report had falsely claimed the existence of a dedicated road for ore transportation, to transport iron ore to access a 900 metre-public road connecting the loading jetty.
He added that in reality, the mining company neither has any formal or informal agreements with the farmers to use paddy fields to move-in mining trucks.
“Few months back, the Chief Minister had used police force to clear farmers blockades of the trucks in paddy fields,” Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues highlighted that the mining lease, spanning 872 hectares for 50 years, encompasses sensitive ecological areas including inland wetlands, lakes in Lamgao and Mulgao, and a tributary of the Mandovi river in Sirigao.
“The dangerous aspect that got revealed in the process is the complicit role of MoEF& CC and its Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) to entertain false information in the EIA report because of reasons best known to them. Mining in Goa continues to be a scam. Rs 35,000 crore was estimated by Justice Shah commission to have been robbed off but the Goa Government hasn’t recovered the amount so far,” Rodrigues concluded.
