Team Herald
PANJIM: Mayem villagers on Thursday approached the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) seeking its intervention to stop the alleged illegal transportation of iron ore from their village.
Addressing media persons, farmer leader Sakaram Pednekar said the bidder of e-auction ore and the contractor involved in transportation do not have valid consent from GSPCB.
Pednekar cited the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s (MoEF&CC) 2014 order banning ore transportation from the village area while recommending that a bypass be built for the same.
“This clearly shows that mining transportation is done illegally and the authorities have failed to act upon,” he said.
He said a bypass is already in place for transportation purpose, despite which trucks laden with ore move within the village areas causing dust and noise pollution. It is also prone to accidents.
The Bicholim Police had on Wednesday arrested eight Mayem villagers including sarpanch Seema Arondekar for allegedly blocking the road and obstructing the ore laden trucks.
The villagers were protesting the dust pollution caused due to transportation of auctioned iron ore and the bad road conditions.
The villagers complained that the roads have been dug for laying cables and accused the mining truck drivers of driving their vehicles in a rash and reckless manner endangering their lives and blocked the transportation from Poira mines.
