Speaking to the delegation, Director of Mines and Geology, Prasanna Acharya assured that the government would sincerely implement road safety measures and take steps to construct the mining bypass, including a mining corridor, at the earliest. He added that steps were already being taken to regularize ore transportation for the safety of people.
However, Mission Bypass leader Pradip Kakodkar replied that it was public experience that most measures and assurances remained only on paper and were never implemented.
“The government wants to lift the e-auction ore within the prescribed period, and hence, such hurry is being made,” said Kakodkar.
He demanded that the authorities give the Mission Bypass core committee two days to discuss the matter and decide accordingly, and warned that citizens would come onto the streets if ore transportation was started in those two days.
“After both parties expressed their views, the response from government authorities was found unconvincing and unsatisfactory,” said Quepem MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar, who attended the meeting. However, he hoped that ore transportation would be stopped for the next two days.
The meeting was also attended by South Goa Collector Sachin Shinde, Quepem Deputy Collector Shankar Gaonkar, Quepem Mamlatdar Prataprao Gaonkar, Quepem PI Pravin Gawas, Curchorem PI Ravindra Dessai, Curchorem Traffic Cell PI Edwin Colaco, RTO Assistant Director, Quepem, Rajesh Naik, and Quepem DySP Semi Tavares.
