PONDA: On the urging of PWD Minister Ramakrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar, the mining dependents on Friday withdrew their proposed protest on Khandepar Bridge during its inauguration.
After the mining dependents confronted him in the afternoon at Dharbandora and threatened to protest during the inauguration of Khandepar Bridge, the minister called them for an urgent meeting late night on Friday, where he requested them to withdraw their protest.
It is speculated that Sudin took this urgent step after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari cancelled his Goa visit for inauguration of Khandepar Bridge.
At the request of Sudin, a delegation led by GMPF leader Puthi Gaonkar met Sudin at his residence and after an hour long discussion and a telephonic conversation with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, he declared withdraw of their protest.
Gaonkar later told reporters that the PWD Minister and the Chief Minister assured to lead a delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue of restarting mining in Goa. Following this assurance, he said, he withdrew the protest.
Savordem MLA Deepak Pauskar was also a part of the delegation of mining dependants that met Sudin.
Later, Sudin too confirmed that on the assurance given by the government, the mining dependents withdrew their proposed dharna on bridge.
The PWD minister said, “The State or Union Minister will once come and go, but mines dependents will use bridge forever.”
It is learnt that other officials — police, deputy collector and mamlatdar – present at the meeting also convinced the mining dependent that the bridge is constructed for their benefit as they are suffering from traffic congestion.
