Team Herald
PANJIM: A meeting of Mulgao villagers with North Goa Collector Sneha Gitte, IAS, along with officials of Vedanta Limited remained inconclusive on Tuesday with the villagers remaining firm on their demand to remove houses from the mining lease.
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Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Bicholim MLA Chandrakant Shetye said, “The company officials said that there should be a buffer zone of 50 metres, while the villagers said that they will allow the buffer zone of 100 metres. When the issue of the lake came up, it was pointed out that the matter is before the National Green Tribunal. On employment issue, I said that if the company is doing everything as per the rules then why should the residents of Mulgao be deprived of the benefits. Why should they eat dust? We require sustainable mining, but doubts of villagers must be cleared. I am with the villagers. The company must have some consideration of the demands made by the villagers.”
Shree Kelbai Devasthan Committee president Vasant Gad said, “We are firm on our demand that the houses and temples which have been shown in the mining lease should be removed. There are other issues which we have to put in the secondary stage. First and foremost the houses and temples should be removed from the lease.”
He said, “If mining activities are carried out at a distance of 50 metres from our houses then we will have to face dust pollution, noise pollution. That is why we are against making a buffer zone of 50 metres.”
The meeting was attended by officials from GSPCB, DMG, Vedanta Limited, Comunidade of Mulgao president, Mulgao sarpanch and others.
Last month, Mulgao villagers along with panchayat members had marched to the Bicholim mining block-I and stopped the extraction of iron ore saying it was causing sound pollution in the village. Then a meeting was called with the officials of Vedanta Limited. However, the meeting remained inconclusive as the locals claimed that the company officials did not give them concrete assurance.
Mulgao sarpanch Mansi Kavthankar, panchayat members, Shree Kelbai Devasthan Committee president Vasant Gad, Comunidade of Mulgao president Maheshwar Parab and villagers were present.
Vedanta Ltd was represented by Dheeraj Kumar Jagdish, Deputy CEO of Iron Ore Goa and Santosh Mandrekar, head of north cluster.
The meeting had discussed some of the main demands of the villagers and farmers such as desilting of paddy fields on priority, clearing compensation of farmers pending since 2011, releasing arrears of lease rent to Comunidade of Mulgao since nearly 2.21 lakh square metres of area is coming under the Bicholim mining block.
In the meeting, the company representatives had informed the villagers that compensation up to 2018 will be provided to them and added that the company was ready to discuss other issues as well.
However, the villagers had claimed that there was no concrete assurance from the company officials except telling that it will discuss the issue.
“During talks the mining company representatives could not say ‘yes or no’ and the meeting remained inconclusive,” said Vasant Gad.
Later, in a press statement the Vedanta Ltd emphasised that all matters raised by the Mulgao community are being carefully considered, and the company is focused on achieving a swift conclusion.
Earlier, the truck operators from Bicholim protested against the mining company’s decision to outsource trucks through a contractor for ore transportation. The truck operators stopped their operations and staged a protest in front of the company’s gate at Bicholim, demanding to withdraw trucks hired by them.
Truck Owners Association of Sesa Mining president Rajaram ‘Satish’ Gaonkar said that after resumption of mining activity they were struggling to make minimum two trips per day, while the company had now brought 12-wheeler trucks to transport ore.
“We will not allow the company to use their trucks. We have 180 truck owners and we will not operate our trucks till the time the company withdraws the trucks outsourced by them to transport ore,” warned Gaonkar.
