Team Herald
PANJIM: The mining dependent’s sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, entered the second day on Wednesday as they continue to demand restoration of their livelihood with immediate resumption of mining in Goa.
The dependents under the banner Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) want the Supreme Court to uphold their constitutional right –‘Right to Life’, which is currently at stake due to closer of the mining industry, which had been the sole source of income generation for nearly three lakh dependents.
The mining dependents are on dharna at Jantar Mantar since Tuesday and it will end on Thursday evening.
GMPF President Puti Gaonkar told Herald from New Delhi that the Supreme Court order dated February 2018, banning mining activities was without considering the impact on the livelihood of the residents of more than 50 percent area of the State.
“A sizable population of Goa finds gainful employment in the mining sector either directly or indirectly as truck owners, drivers, barge operators, and mechanics or through self-employment ventures. Approximately 60,000 are likely to be rendered without any means of livelihood especially when there is no alternate source of income, impacting over 3,00,000 people,” Gaonkar said.
“Hence, we appeal the Supreme Court judges to uphold our Right to Life, which is our constitutional right,” he said.
GMPF also wants State government to file an affidavit before Supreme Court in the pending Abolition matter, seeking directions that the 50-year lease period provided under Sec 8A(3) of the MMDR Act,1957, for the concessions converted into leases by the Abolition Act, 1987 will commence from the date of coming into force of the said Act, that is, 23.05.1987 and consequently mining operations can be permitted to be resumed on this basis.
“We have already filed an IA in the Supreme Court and want State government to file an affidavit,” Gaonkar said.
In the coming week, Supreme Court is likely to hear the appeal filed by mining companies challenging 1987 law that abolished mining concessions granted by the Portuguese-era government in Goa.
