‘Mining halt may lead to suicides in Goa’

Last Updated: Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 16:30

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Tags: Goa, Goa mining, Goa suicides

Panaji: A BJP legislator in Goa on Wednesday said if the mining halt continued in the state, then he feared that people might resort to suicides.

"This is just the first month of mining halt. If this continues further, we will have people committing suicide," Sanvordem BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral told reporters.

He said the halt on mining activity has hit his constituency and people have lost their livelihood.

The Supreme Court in its recent verdict had ordered halt in the extraction and transportation of ore in Goa in wake of Justice M B Shah Commission's findings about illegal mining in the state.

A state based NGO, Goa Foundation, had moved the apex court claiming that all the mines in the state were illegal.

Cabral said the mines should not be closed till some alternative employment avenue is arranged for the people dependent on it.

The state can decide on the buffer zone around wildlife sanctuaries but the mines in that region should not be shut down immediately, he said.

"Shut down the mines but in a phased manner," he added.

PTI

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First Published: Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 16:30

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Raju - Goa
Mining has been caught in the misinformation spread by Goa Foundation an NGO to benefit the foreign mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton who have substantial shareholders in US and UK. These foreign players are facing slowdown in Chinese demand for ore at a time when they have invested in huge expansions and Goa with its competitive ore supplies stands between them and a 40 million increase in sales. Therefore they are funding Goa Foundation to destroy mining in Goa and India. They are also funding MPs in UK to put pressure on India to stop mining. The rot is so bad that Goa Fooundation was the only body the Shah Commission listened to and based his report on, not even State and Central Govt officials, mining companies, local people and committee members of village Panchayat Governing bodies in the mining area were consulted by the Shah Commission. He even called these democratically elected bodies paid muscle-power of the mining companies when they expressed their support for mining and thereby wholly justified rejection of their testimonies in a public meeting, saying that they shouted down anti-mining activists who were in small number. This is the extent of rot in the Indian system.