VASCO: The Goa Barge Owners Association (GBOA) threatened on Saturday to block the navigational channels using 80 barges in support of the protest organised by the mining dependents on March 19 at Azad Maidan in Panjim.
Addressing a press conference at GBOA office in Vasco, President Raymond De Sa said, “Today, after holding a meeting with our members, we have decided to participate in the March 19 protest by blocking navigational channels using our barges. Similarly, the truck owners are also going to bring their trucks to block major roads in the State. Our barges will stop all operations in the rivers including casino operations. With this protest, we want to highlight the plight of people dependent on mining industry to the State government and in return they expect that government should take proactive steps to provide solution to the issue of mining closer.”
“Though we had put forth our prayers and grievances before the State government, it was unable to do anything on this issue and today there is a growing sense of unease and helplessness in the minds of mining dependents. We again prey that the State government and the Central government make efforts in ensuring recommencement of mining business as soon as possible,” he said.
De Sa also said that the barge owners from state are under tremendous pressure from all sides. “On the one hand there is uncertainty vis-à-vis whether the mining operations in the State would resume early or not; on the other hand, the debt relief scheme formulated by the State government for mining affected borrowers end on March 31. Similarly, most of the banks have already started taking action. Some banks have even withdrawn the debt relief scheme and barge owners’ loans have doubled,” he said and demanded that the State government direct all the banks to provide debt relief to the mining dependent barge owners by giving 30 percent waiver.
