Team Herald
CANSAULIM: On the eve of Liberation Day, around 300 people from across Goa gathered near the railway tracks opposite St Lawrence chapel at Arossim, Cansaulim late Friday night, to observe a 12-hour vigil to oppose coal handling at the port and transportation of coal via the railway line.
Earlier, Abhijeet Prabhudessai of Goyant Kollso Naka spoke to the Majorda and Cansaulim railway station masters on telephone and informed them that the people will sit on the railway track as a mark of protest opposing coal transportation and the double tracking project and requested the railway station masters not to allow any trains on the lines until the protest concludes 12 hours later on Saturday.
Prabhudessai called up Railway Station Masters at the start of the night vigil and later addressing the protestors said that Goans have not been liberated from coal, destructive
projects and from tyranny.
He said the government is trying to press the double tracking and trains upon the people. “We want to give a message to the people that the government needs to stop coal transportation and coal in Goa,” Prabhudessai said.
True to their spirit and cause to protect Goa from coal pollution and to oppose the double tracking project, social activists and people from various places across the State sat on the railway tracks in a peaceful protest to free Goa from coal pollution and double tracking which they said will damage heritage houses, the environment and the health of the locals staying along the railway line.
People at the night vigil lit candles, held banners on which were written ‘Our Goal No Coal’, ‘Liberation from Coal’, ‘No Coal’. Protestors also shouted slogans against the three destructive linear projects as well as against the companies that were behind the projects.
Protestors demanded that Goa’s environment, the Western Ghats and the heritage be protected and pledged to do so themselves.
Protestors also conversed with Police Inspector Sheriff Jaquis and told him they will not leave the track and they would stay there protesting peacefully. Protestors later sang some protest songs. Their protest was continuing long past midnight, at the time of going to press.
