Team Herald
MARGAO: President of Margao Salcete Truckers Association Franky Gomes has accused Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant of playing with truck owners in the State by merely promising to start mining and further said that police are “making a quick buck” due to the ban on transportation of bricks and sand.
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“The truck owners do not want any package from the government; all that we want is that actual mining should start and not selling only the already excavated and auctioned ores,” he said adding that the chief minister is hoodwinking people by selling only the auctioned ores without starting actual mining.
“Now that Zilla Panchayat elections are around, the chief minister has said that mining will continue at least for 50 years but why make these statements when mining has been stopped in Goa by a Supreme Court order,” he said.
Franky asserted that the Government of Goa or the chief minister cannot start mining just like that as it was closed on an order of the Supreme Court. “These statements of restarting mining results in truck owners unnecessarily spending money in repairing their trucks and waiting in limbo,” he said.
“We beg and borrow money to repair the trucks hoping mining will start and then we have to sit tight and the trucks go to waste once again thus wasting the money invested on the vehicles,” he said.
Alleging that police are earning a fast buck due to the ban on sand and bricks transportation, he demanded that the powers given to the police be withdrawn forthwith as the police are collecting bribe ranging from Rs 1,000 to above from each truck caught taking this material.
