PANAJI
On the back of the announcement by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant indicating restarting mining and auction of leases, the Goa Mining People's Front (GMPF) has warned of an agitation if mining dependents are left in the lurch.
“We welcome if the government restarts mining, but if it conducts e-auctioning of all mining leases to restart mining then it will have to employ all the existing workers, machinery owners, truck owners etc. who were retrenched at the time of closure of mining," Puti Gaonkar of GMPF said.
Gaonkar warned that the GMPF will stage a massive agitation against the restart of mining if all those engaged in the sector are ignored.
"We are informing the government in advance that if our demand is not fulfilled, we will stage massive agitation,” he said.
“Some poor mining dependent even committed suicide due to closure of mining. If they are really serious, they should restart mining in a short period,” Gaonkar said.
Gaonkar said that GMPF has since 2018 been saying that if the government wished, it could restart mining at any time. He added that Sawant's recent statement has proven it right.
He recalled that after the 2018 closure of mining, the dependents of the sector were agitating and met with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Sawant, who was then Speaker, and cabinet ministers Vishwajit Rane and Nilesh Cabral.
He said that Parrikar had at the meeting assured that if the auction of mining leases is done, the government would put terms and conditions to the leaseholder that the existing mining workers, truck owners, machinery owners who were working with those leases at the time of closure would get preference in jobs.
He demanded that the assurance be honoured and warned of an agitation if the mining dependents are ignored in the process of restarting the sector.
