PANAJI
Around 100 agitated sand extractors from Pernem met Tourism Minister Babu Ajgaonkar in the ministerial block in Porvorim and voiced their demand for uninterrupted resumption of sand mining along the Terekhol river bank.
As per directions and monitoring of the High Court, the Mines Department has started acting strictly against illegal sand mining in the State. The sand extractors are annoyed with this action of the government.
“We want our sand extraction business which was going on for last so many years to have legal sanctity. We have demanded immediate relief for our business which is suffering due to government action,” said Sainath Mote, one of the sand extractors.
He claimed that Ajgaonkar has assured them to work out a solution on the issue as early as possible with the help of his cabinet colleagues.
There are many people who depend on sand extraction for their livelihood and there is an increasing demand for sand from the housing industry. The department of mines had granted 458 permits for sand extraction all across Goa, the sources said.
Earlier on September 10 the High Court had reprimanded the government for not complying with its earlier instructions of deploying flying squads to curb illegal sand mining.
The department was pulled up for not having a patrolling plan in place along the rivers and for restricting its surveillance to only road transportation of sand.
The Federation of Rainbow Warriors had filed a petition against the government on lack of patrolling and absence of monitoring measures to check illegal sand extraction.
The government has seized some canoes and trucks which are used for sand extraction and transportation after the High Court reprimand.
