Team Herald
PONDA: The mining dependents on Sunday decided to intensify their agitation in June to demand the resumption in mining activities and make Government aware of their plight following the closure of mining in State.
The decision was taken at a meeting held at Bhumika Prasad Hall, Usgao wherein they raised concerns over their uncertain future and large scale unemployment problem following the closure of mining.
In the meeting, the speakers slammed BJP government for failing to come out with a solution to restart mining in the State. The mining dependents including owners of trucks and heavy earthmoving machinery, the laid off mining workers and others were present.
They attributed the failure of their last agitation at Panjim to lack of proper leadership and this time they decided to intensify their stir by forming a 50-member committee under the Chairmanship of Puti Gaonkar with Nilkant Gaonkar, Suresh Desai, Sandeep Parab, Ramesh Sinari, Shashikant Gaonkar, Shivdas Madkar, Atmaram Tilve and Balaji Gaonkar as members.
AGTOA president Nilkant Gawas said BJP Government is responsible for the closure of mining in the state and despite promises and securing votes of mining dependents to win 2014 Lok Sabha it did nothing concrete to restart legal mining in Goa.
He appealed to the members against falling prey to false promises of the BJP leaders during the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Seeking public support before starting the next major agitation, Puti Gaonkar informed that in the next few days an awareness campaign will be launched in the mining belt.
