MARGAO, OCT 17
In an interesting development, the Curtorim Communidade on Sunday cancelled the auction scheduled on Sunday and Monday for extraction of basalt stones and setting up of stone crushers in Sao Jose de Areal village.
Sao Jose de Areal villagers under the banner of Schedule Tribes Association, who marched to the Curtorim Communidade office this morning to protest against the auction, hailed the cancellation of the auction as a victory for the people.
The cancellation of the auction came for want of any bidders and also the fact that the Administration of Communidades, south told the Curtorim Communidade to keep the auction in abeyance.
The Curtorim Communidade will now meet on Wednesday to take decide on the applications received from the people opposing the auction of the hills for extraction of basalt stones and for stone crushers.
Around 300 Sao Jose de Areal villagers marched to the office of the Curtorim Communidade well ahead of the auction scheduled at 10.30 am. When the communidade attorney Dr Ernesto Rodrigues came to the office, the villagers questioned him on the auction and underlined to save the village hills for posterity.
Rodrigues explained to the villagers that his office has received a communiqué from the Administrator of Communidades asking the Communidade to keep the auction. He later gave a note to the villagers stating that the auction stands cancelled.
A villager Freddy Travasso later told the villagers that the auction has been cancelled by the Communidade and reiterated the resolve of the people to protect the hills from further destruction. “Our only request to the Curtorim Communidade and other authorities is to just leave our hills alone and not destroy them for basalt stone extraction. We will never allow auction the land and hills of our forefathers to be destroyed by stone extraction”, Travasso added.
He said the villagers have told the Curtorim Communidade to inform the Sao Jose de Areal Church about future decisions on the auction or other issues affecting the village.
