Seminar on Shah report disrupted, activists heckled
TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: Tension prevailed in Margao on Saturday evening after mining-dependent people descended in large numbers at the CD Blue Chip hall, the venue of a seminar on the Shah Commission report organized by Goa RTI Forum, prompting the organizers to abruptly cancel the meet.
The situation threatened to go out of control at one stage after the mining-dependent people directed their ire at social activists Jose Marie Miranda and John Philip Pereira while they were leaving the venue under police protection. The duo were jeered and heckled and a member of the crowd even hurled a missile in the form of a plastic water bottle at the duo, which landed on a police officer. The huge crowd followed the duo near the Wrangler showroom and things nearly went out of control when an office bearer of the transporters’ association Prasad Phaldessai tried to question both Philip and Miranda, but was kept at bay by PSI Pravin Gawas.
Acting Margao PI Gurudas Kadam immediately threw a police cover around Miranda as he tired to move out on his two-wheeler. The police had to put up a human barricade and used force to stop the mob from chasing them.
As other activists who came to participate in the seminar were holed up in the building, the police did not take any chance and decided to disperse the crowd, before ensuring their safe passage. Participants for the seminar, who had come from Panjim, were later dropped at the KTC bus stand by a police van.
Trouble started right at the start at Blue Chip hall, the venue of the seminar on the Shah Commission report organized by the Goa RTI Forum. Prof Bhushan Bharve and activist Ramesh Gauns were the invitees for the seminar, but they were conspicuous by their absence. However, to the surprise of the organizers, many people from the mining-dependent people found their way in the small hall with a 35-seater capacity, while the crowd began to swell with each passing minute. The Margao police tried to intervene and get the uninvited participants out of the hall, but the organizers decided to call off the meeting anticipating law and order problem.
Srikant Bharve of the Goa RTI Forum told newsmen that they had planned the meeting in Margao after their first meet at Dona Paula to discuss the Shah Commission report.
Adv Jawahar Dias said it was unfair that these people came and tried to disrupt the meeting called by peaceful citizens. “They have the right to have their point of view, but they cannot come and gherao the citizens. We are not living in a jungle raj,” he quipped.
‘Want open debate’
MARGAO: The mining-dependent people maintained that mining issues should be discussed and debated in the open. Sameer Kurdikar warned that the mining-dependent people will not keep quite if the NGOs are hell bent in targeting the mining-dependent people on the pretext of protecting the environment. “These NGOs are responsible for taking away our livelihood. They cannot hold seminars and debates in air-conditioned rooms. They should come out from the air-conditioned rooms and have an open debate on the mining issue,” he said.
