Goa villagers appeal to Supreme Court for allowing mining

Some village sarpanchs of Goa appealed to SC to allow resumption of mining activities in the state.

New Delhi: Some village sarpanchs of Goa on Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court to allow resumption of mining activities in the state, saying there has been serious impact on their livelihood due to the recent mining ban. Stating that over 5 lakh people are dependent on mining activities in Goa, the representation by the sarpanchs said that local people have been threatening to commit mass suicide as they are not able to pay their loans taken to purchase trucks and barge among others. On October 5, the apex court had ordered suspension of mining operations in all the 90 mines in Goa on the basis of the Justice M B Shah Commission report which estimated a whopping Rs 35,000 crore loss to the exchequer due to illegal mining in the last 12 years.

The court had also asked an apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee to submit its report on the illegal mining in the state within four weeks, while issuing notices to the Centre and the state government on the matter. "We don`t know whether it will take one month, two months or more to resume mining. So, we have said that we should also be heard. We are demanding that legal mining should resume immediately and the ban on illegal mining should continue," Sarpanch of Sacorda village Shirish Desai told mediapersons here. The representation has been signed by sarpanchs of 48 village-panchayats and chairpersons of four municipalities of the state. PTI