TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Mining dependent people from Goa have petitioned Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to evolve an affirmative political consensus between the State and the Centre for urgent and immediate resumption of mining activities in the State.
Pro-mining agitators on Monday met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi along with local NCP leaders and would also meet the PM, and petition that the Ministry of Environment and Forests be instructed to revoke the order of suspension of environment clearances, kept in abeyance since October 2012.
The petition demands that the state government be directed to revoke its order banning mining activities and handling of dumps along with appointing an expert panel to scrutinise the Justice M B Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Goa.
The mining workers under the banner Goa Mining Peoples’ Front (GMPF) had been protesting in the State over the last one month, demanding immediate resumption of legal mining.
“The current mining ban has devastated peoples’ livelihood. People have virtually stopped sending their children to schools and colleges as they are living in penury and reeling under the yoke of loans, unable to repay them. The financial sector has also been adversely affected,” the workers said in their petition.
“In view of this human tragedy, the continuance of the mining ban for any further period will only bleed the people of Goa, leading to social turmoil and unrest in this tiny and beautiful peace-loving State,” it added.
The petition also stressed the need to have a dedicated mechanism for sustainable development while undertaking mining operations thereby maintaining a fine balance between environment and ecology.
“It is also equally necessary to protect the lives and livelihood of thousands, nay, lakhs of mining-dependent people, who live in the same mining lease environment and villages,” it added.
The workers have also demanded that instructions be issued through the Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of India to relax, restructure and defer the repayment of loans secured from financial institutions and to waive the interest on the borrowings by the mining stake-holders.
