The Goan’s Neshwin Almeida trailed the CEC team during its visit. Here are jottings from his diary
Sunday, October 28
CEC members P V Jayakrishnanan, a former Secretary MoEF andalso an ex Chief Secretary of Goa, CEC Member Mahendra Vyas, an Advocate inSupreme Court representing NGOs, and Siddhartha Chaudhary, amicus curiae, hitThe Goan tarmac to meet the mining affected and furnish its report to theSupreme Court, based on the Shah Commission report.
Diary Entries
Snippets of CEC visit to Goa
5.30 pm: Mines Director Prassana Acharya, Mines OSD LevinsonMartins receives received CEC team along with Siddartha Chaudhary (Lawyerassociated with Harish Salve) at Vasco airport and moves to Circuit House, Panjim.
6.30 pm: CEC meets Goa Foundation’s Claude Alvares separately,to avoid a confrontation between mining dependent and the petitioner.
7.30pm: CEC moves to Directorate of Boilers and Industries tolisten to grievances of mining related people.
Truckers, Mine owners, mine workers, barge owners, shipyardunit owners interact with CEC members
Quotes from the meeting
This is a sub-judice matter and we are not allowed to speakin public about it. We have discussed our diffi culties. —P K Mukherjee, SesaGoa MD
We are in a such a situation that only suicide looks like anoption with our debts and no money to pay loans. Our trucks will be seized soonsince mining is stalled since May and we are struggling to pay our Rs 30,000per month EMIs since then. —Kiran Faldessai, South Goa Truckers Association
A delegation of us sarpanchas from panchayats that aredependent on mining met the CE to tell them mining existed since Portuguese timesand as such, the legal mining that was prevailing before 50 years ago should resume.— Gaurish Gaunekar, Mollem Sarpanch
Barge owners association president Atul Jadhav asserted thatthey have informed the CEC about the 6000 workers employed on the over 400barges and that barge owners are suff ering, since Goa is one of the nine maritimestates of India but has no other cargo besides iron ore.
Chandrakant Gawas , president of the shipping association, statedthat there are over 72 ship repair shipyards with over 6000 people employed inbarges and 30000 in ancilliary services who are all lying unemployed andpleaded that legal mining be resumed as soon as possible.
BJP MLAs Subhash Faldessai and Pramod Sawant were presentoutside the department of factories and boilers in Altinho, Panjim. Faldessaistated that he was here as a party observer. Truckers present press cuttings ofPeter Vaz, the trucker who committed suicide from Uguem bridge. Faldessai andSawant provide press cuttings to people going in for the meeting, so that thisis brought to the attention of the CEC.
Monday, Oct 29, 9.30 am: P V Jayakrishnan exits secretariatafter meeting Chief Secretary B Vijayan, besides mines and GSPCB offi cials.The Shah Commission report on buffer zones was discussed. The former membersecretary of GSPCB Srinet Kotwale was also summoned at meeting to clarify theGSPCB’s stand on buffer zones during his tenure.
Monday: October 29: 10 am: CEC members, mines director, OSDmines Srinet Kotwale, Claude Alvares starts visiting several mines. Checks andverifies boundaries and forest cover encroachments and encroachments beyond thelease area as shown in the Shah Commission to verify if a Google map matches actualtopography.
CEC inspects forest encroachments in Shirgao area , as shownin Shah Commission to check if forest cover shown is just a green patch orreally a forest cover. CEC wants to physically verify forest cover. Finds no encroachmentson forest land at one of the miens at Bicholim.
Oct 29, 3pm: CEC checks mines at Oilem Sanquelim mines toverify if green patches on Google Maps is forest area or not. Certain greenpatches turn-out to be cashew plantations and not forest area.
Oct 29, 5pm: CEC arrives at Sanquelim mines and heck forencroachments beyond lease area. CEC bumps into Prasad Gawas, a farmer inSanquelim, who shows how an entire lake to divert water into a mining pit.
6 pm: CEC moves on. Jayakrishnan wants NEERI to investigatecontamination and destruction of nature by mining. Natural light begins tofade. CEC wants to visit one last mine.
7pm: CEC reaches a mine which is functioning without wildlifeclearance since 1955 on a lease that exist till 2027. Mines manager insiststhat mine doesn’t encroach wildlife area.
Day 2: More visits, some shocks,
Some surprises
Tuesday Oct 30: The CEC is on its last lap of physically verifyingmines. South Goa mines verifi cation begins with CEC along with mines officials, who travel from Panjim to Codli via Dharbandora.
10 am sharp: CEC arrives at Codli mines. Checks stalled miningoperations and equipment lying in the open. Check boundaries of the mine andwhether mine has encroached or not as shown in Shah Commission. Miningequipment gathering dust in Codli mines. CEC inspects old dumps and a mining pitat Codli for type2 encroachments.
CEC then moves to Cuddegal where it asks questions on encroachments,mining plan and adherence to Rule 37 of the mining rules
Noon: CEC drives into Curchorem town. Has a look at trucks lyingunutilised besides the streets in Curchorem town as mining is stalled. Movestowards Sanguem Forest Guest House for lunch. Joined by Deputy CollectorSandhya Kamat who apprises CEC on traffic congestion and dust pollution caused bymining trucks besides the unemployment since mining has been stalled.
2.30 pm: CEC resumes inspection at anther mine. Checks for forestencroachments and claims by Sawant Committee that the mine at Kurdi-Rivona is onforest land. Moves to Kurpem region, almost 40 kms from Sanguem.
4.00 pm: Arrives into the dense forest of Kurpem mines alongwith Chief Conservator of Forest Richard D’Souza. Questions asked on how ownsand runs the mine and who the raising contractor was. (Incidently a formerminister)
On returning to base camp, Jayakrishnan addressing the motorcadeexplains, “Mining in Goa is a shame. Seems like mining will lead to a disasterin the state. The whole of Goa will rise against mining one day, given thewater contamination. Oh lord, only Goa can save itself.”
6 pm to 7 pm: Visits two more mines before calling it a day
