TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CURCHOREM: Furious over the detention and arrest of 34 residents protesting against transportation of the stacked ore from a Cavrem mine on Thursday night, hundreds of residents from Caverm-Pirla confronted officials at the deputy collector’s office in Quepem on Friday.
The talks, however, remained inconclusive because politicians insisted on ascertaining the quantity of ore stacked at the mining site in Cavrem, while locals were more interested in employment avenues associated with the ore transportation.
According to reports, many locals from Cavrem and surrounding areas had gathered at the deputy collector’s office in Quepem after they learnt that the arrested villagers were taken to Quepem to sign the bonds for their release.
However, the arrested villagers refused to sign the bonds and demanded the presence of Director of Mines to answer their queries. Left with no option, Deputy Collector Ajit Panchwadkar informed his superiors about the prevailing situation which was turning tense and Assistant Director of Mines Parag Nagarshekar was sent to Quepem to meet the protesting residents.
Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Quepem MLA Babu Kavlekar and South Goa AAP candidate Swati Kerkar also rushed to the site in support of the agitating residents.
The angry villagers then sought to know why they had been kept in the dark over the movement of stacked ore from the mines and demanded scrapping of the transport contract system.
“Let the auctioneer hire the trucks and pay them directly, instead of the contractor, and let auctioneer give preference to the local people,” said a villager.
When locals alleged that there had been no physical monitoring of the ore transportation activity by representatives of the mines department and Goa Electronic Limited (GEL), Nagarshekar shot back, “Everything is being monitored and if anyone has any doubt over it, they can complain to the Supreme Court appointed committee consisting of Parimal Rai (Goa Government Secretary), U V Singh and Shaikh Naimuddin.”
The residents were not satisfied by his explanations and got agitated further when Nagarshekar didn’t show them documents and other permissions given by the government to the auctioneer, even after Lourenco had asked him to do so.
Later bowing to their wishes, Nagarshekar agreed to visit the mines at Cavrem after villagers assured him that they would not take law in their hands.
They proceeded to the Cavrem mine along with Lourenco, Kavlekar and Kerkar.
Speaking to media persons at the mining site at Cavrem, Curchorem-based business consultant Rajendra Kakodkar said, “The Supreme Court has granted permission to this cluster to take ore from Maina-Cavrem to the Xelvona jetty and not from Maina to Khamamoll jetty in Curchorem. But they are transporting the ore to the Khamamoll jetty instead of Xelvona, which is illegal.”
“The valuation of the ore, which is dumped at the site, has not been done properly. One stack is shown here as 13,500 tonnes, but any one will admit that it is more than 50,000 tonnes,” stated Kakodkar.
Speaking to media, Lourenco accused the BJP government of keeping the locals in the dark by using police force.
Kavlekar claimed that the people were not against the transportation of the stacked ore, but they want transparency in the activity.
“They want to know information about the tender, how much ore will be lifted from the mines and who will conduct the physical monitoring,” said Kavlekar, while urging authorities to carry out mining activities transparently by taking locals into confidence.
Meanwhile, the 24 persons who were arrested on Thursday night were released by Quepem police even though they refused to sign the bond.
