Team Herald
PONDA: The mining stakeholders have decided to stage a dharna against Goa Foundation director Claude Alvares on November 2 at Pali-Vagus, for the latter’s alleged opposition to mining business. The stakeholders have appealed to all the people affected by the mining ban to participate in the dharna in large numbers.
This was informed to the media at a joint press conference addressed by North Goa Truck Owners Association President Suresh Desai, Mining Truck Owners Association President Vithal Gawas and All Goa Machine Owners President Sandeep Parab, at Ponda on Tuesday.
At the press conference, Suresh Desai strongly condemned Alvares for petitioning the Supreme Court of India for reducing mining cap to 12 million tonnes from existing 20 million tonnes. Now, the court has asked the Goa government to submit its stand on Alvares’ petition, next month.
Pointing out that currently many mining companies are not operating in Goa for want of environmental clearance, Desai said, if as sought by Alvares, the Supreme Court (SC) reduces cap to 12 million tonnes, then, mining dependant people would lose their livelihood and would eventually die.
Sandeep Parab said that taking into consideration all aspects of mining, the SC has already capped ore extraction at 20 million tonnes per year. Despite this, he lamented, that Alvares has filed a petition in the SC seeking to reduce cap on ore extraction to 12 million tonnes per year.
Terming petition as unfortunate, Parab said that before filing his petition Alvares should have rehabilitated the mining dependents by clearing their loans on various machineries, trucks and on investment in mining business.
Parab feared that lowering the cap on ore extraction to 12 million tonnes per year would lead to closure of mining business, thereby depriving thousands of mining dependents of their livelihood.
Parab alleged that protecting the environment is not the agenda of Alvares, but closing down the mining business. “Rampant hill cutting has been going on in many places and many cities in Goa are suffering from various pollutions, but he is not bothered about that at all,” he alleged.
“Alvares says that he is fighting for the future generations, but the truth is the present generation is dying. How can there be a future generation without the present generation?” he asked.
When asked whether they met and discussed on issue with Alvares, Parab said, “We made lot of efforts to met Alvares and discuss the issue with him, but he never met us. Instead of filing a petition in the Supreme Court, he should come to us and discuss the issue with us. We are ready for an open to debate on this issue.”
