The Goa Foundation has termed the public hearing as “illegal”, claiming misrepresentations in the environment impact assessment report
RGP President Manoj Parab questions why govt wants to people in dark
Locals say they want mining to start but also want miners to follow environment laws
Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The much-awaited public hearing for environmental clearance of an iron ore mining block in Goa took off on a stormy note on Friday with several people demanding postponement claiming misrepresentations in the environment impact assessment report.
The state seeks to restart its mining industry which has been shut for more than a decade now.
The Goa State Pollution Control Board began the public hearing, the first of presumably many, for the Bicholim mineral block (Block I) with an area of 478.5206 hectare located in north Goa and covering the villages of Bicholim, Bordem, Lamgao, Mulgao, Mayem, and Sirigao.
The rights to the mining block were won by Vedanta Ltd in the auctions held in December last year and if restarted, will mark the resumption of operations at the site of the existing mine.
Large number of people were gathered for the hearing and many demanded postponement due to lack of clarity.
Voices of dissent got louder at the public hearing.
“This is a mine covering six villages, yet the state government hasn’t taken the trouble to explain the technical language in the environmental impact assessment report. They want to force this through without the villagers understanding the impacts of the mining,” Swapnesh Sherlekar, a Bicholim resident and an activist, said.
“Mining has ruined our once fertile fields, destroyed the springs that provided us with water, and all this has happened in just the last 50 years. This existing mine is now being given a fresh lease of another 50 years, so imagine the kind of destruction that will take place in the next 50 years,” Sakharam Pednekar of the villagers’ union said.
The Goa Foundation has termed the public hearing as “illegal”, claiming misrepresentations in the environmental impact assessment report.
“Our main objection is that the mining block has been shown as a fresh lease, just commencing production, when the mining lease has been under continuous operation since 1941. A brownfield site has been declared as a greenfield project. This has been done to ensure that the environmental problems caused by these leases during several decades of poor-quality mining practices are simply not brought up for discussion. Neither is there any proposal for the rehabilitation of the mine sites and damage is done,” Goa Foundation’s Claude Alvares said.
The village panchayat of Mulgao has called for a cancellation of the public hearing, saying that the villagers were not given enough time to understand the report and create awareness about it.
Speaking to media Revolutionary Goans President Manoj Parab said though they want restarting of mining it has to be done following due process of law.
“Govt has to clear doubts of farmers, whose fields have been destroyed. Govt has to maintain transparency on whether the mining will operate in the same way it did in an “uncontrolled” manner prior to 2012 or there will be checks and balances,” he said.
He said people have suffered a lot and mining has to start at some point in time to boost State’s economy.
North Goa Superintendent of Police Nidhin Valsan said the police have made all arrangements for the smooth conduct of the hearing in coordination with district administration officials.
Devanand Parab Sarpanch Pissurlem village and union leader of Vedanta company speaking on today’s public hearing said that mining needs to start at the earliest.
He said that people have suffered a lot and so has the State.
“Govt can’t give employment to everyone and hence mining has to start for the youth,” he said.
He praised Vedanta for supporting the employees during mining break.
The Bicholim mining block consists of five erstwhile leases that have been amalgamated into a single block. The leases have been in operation since 1941 and have been operated by several companies including Dempo Mining Corporation (since taken over by Vedanta) and Sesa Mining Corporation Ltd, which later became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vedanta Ltd.
Vedanta bagged the block by promising to share 63.55% of the average sale price with the state government. The block has a stated capacity of 3.0 MPTA (million tons per annum) of iron ore.
The mining industry in Goa is estimated to have contributed roughly around ₹6,500 crores or 16.94% to the state GDP and employed 19,000 employees directly out of the total labour force of 582,000 prior to its stoppage by the state government in the wake of the Shah Commission report on illegal mining tabled in Parliament in 2012.
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