Team Herald
BICHOLIM: Around 150 mining dependents working for Sesa Goa and Chowgule mines on Saturday grilled ministers and Mayem MLA over the delay in solving their problems.
AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik, Archaeology Minister Vijai Sardesai and Mayem MLA Pravin Zantye had come to attend a function at Saptakoteshwar temple at Narvem in Bicholim, on Saturday.
However, they were in for a rude shock when mining workers gheroed them.
The agitators asked Shripad Naik as to why he could not fix an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when BJP was ruling in Goa. The agitators also questioned him why Modi had no time to meet them when he has lot of time to click selfies with the film stars after the GST on INOX was reduced.
The agitators even asked Shripad Naik whether Modi knows him at all.
Pacifying the agitators, Shripad said that that he has been constantly trying to fix an appointment with Modi since last six months. He added that he is positive about getting an appointment with Modi very soon.
The agitators also asked Vijai Sardesai what action the government has taken on the mining companies who have retrenched the workers without following proper procedure.
Sardesai told them that government has noted the mining companies that are bent upon taking their own decisions by sidelining workers and defying rules. He added that the government would take serous action on such mining companies when the time comes.
