Team Herald
PONDA: Mining dependents strongly condemned the lathi charge on the protestors while turning their ire on now erstwhile lease holders, “who watched the protest on television and got constant updates on their smart phones”
Uttam Naik who lives in the mining belt said former mine lease holders who earned several thousand crores of rupees were relaxed at home on Monday. “They did not suffer any pain due to mining closure. Government now, instead of thinking of the big mine owners, should think of the small mining dependents who depend solely on mining for their survival and restart mining at the earliest.”
Residents of Palim-Usgao belt condemned the lathi-charge by the police on mining dependents stating that it was like rubbing salt on their wounds. They said the government failed to provide legal mining and livelihood to mines dependent and the delay in action led to anger among mining dependents.
According to Umesh Naik of Usgao, this is not the way to disperse protestors and the police should have first released tear gas and then switched to a lathi charge. “Government failed to understand the anger, worry, anxiety, tension of the mining belt people after they lost their livelihood and had gone to protest in Panjim,” he said.
Naik said the Government should have been prepared to face the morcha and handle angry protestors who lost their livelihood because the government failed to solve the mining issue without a proper policy in place due to which illegal mining was rampant and this led to closure of mines twice. “Government should accept responsibility and act responsibly,” he said.
