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Let him give a list of beneficiaries who he has paid this money too, when he has paid and who has got how much. This is just the tip of the iceberg
- Subhash Phaldesai, Sanguem MLA
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PANAJI: Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldesai asked Caurem resident Ravindra Velip to come clean and bring out an entire record of monies he has received from mining companies and how he has distributed this money among his co villagers.
Speaking to the media at a press conference, Phaldesai accused Velip of blocking the ore transport in order to get the ore transport contracts from the mines at Maina.
“Let him give a list of beneficiaries who he has paid this money too, when he has paid and who has got how much. This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Phaldesai said.
He also accused Velip of sharing the spoils only amongst a select group of villagers saying he could bring more than 200 villagers from the same village who he said has not received any money from Velip.
“Maybe the money he has paid is money that was awarded to the villagers by the Goa Human Rights Commission,” Velip said.
Phaldesai said that he as a contractor had developed a ‘completely legal business formula’ to ensure that all the members of the village would get a certain percentage of his profits he made on mining.
“Each family would get money as well as school children would get money for buying school paraphernalia. It was through CSR,” Phaldesai said.
Phaldesai was asked whether he had faced similar extortion attempts as he claimed was currently on in Caurem.
Phaldesai pointed out that Ravindra Velip had in emails to the Directorate of Mines asked that the mining contracts be given to him. “If he wanted to the mining transport contracts and had got them, would that mean that the mining and the transport that he is currently claiming is illegal would be legal?”
Phaldesai also accused Velip of defaming him pointing out that Velip had blamed him for his alleged attack in prison as well as of provoking him over the last one and a half months.
“The arrested villagers were sent to judicial custody because they refused to pay the bail amounts saying that they are willing to go to jail. The very next day they change their minds, pay the bail amount and then claim he was attacked in prison,” Phaldesai said asking that whether he asked them to go to jail so that they could be attacked. “Am I a superman or spider man to fly from here, sneak into jail and attack them,” he asked.
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Velip says 'compensation'
distributed to villagers
Caurem panch Ravindra Velip, in a bid to defend himself, on Wednesday claimed that the money he was paid by the mining company was given to him as ‘compensation’ which he ultimately distributed to the villagers.
Addressing a crowded group of journalists at the Azad Maidan on Wednesday morning along with a group of villagers, mostly women, Velip said that the allegations made against him were with the intention to malign his image.
“The company is trying to malign my image. It was the compensation given by the company towards the agricultural, health, economic, community losses caused due to mining since the year 2004 to 2012,” Velip said.
The company had given Velip nearly ₹24 lakh money in the name of ‘business development’ which were deposited in his current account.
Velip released a bank statement showing that he received the money in the form of three cheques and showed that the money was transferred to other accounts.
While, Ravindra Velip claims he distributed the money and the villagers who gathered around him claim he has received money, the bank statement he released itself didn’t show who were the ultimate beneficiaries of the money and who the money was transferred to.
While Velip claimed that the ‘compensation’ was paid as a result of a meeting held at the office of the Additional Collector South, then Prasanna Acharya wherein it was resolved that mining through Caurem would be resumed only after compensation was paid to the affected people.
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SHAME TO ENTIRE
VILLAGE, CLAIM
MAINA RESIDENTS
The disclosure that Cavrem Panch Ravindra Velip had taken Rs 23 lakh from a mining company has brought shame to the entire village, claim residents of Maina.
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VELIP'S AGITATION
WAS FOR PERSONAL
GAIN: PHALDESAI
>> See pg 2
