MARGAO
Upping the ante against basalt stone quarrying in the village, Sao Jose de Areal villagers on Wednesday knocked the doors of South Goa Collector, with a plea against granting any permission to carry out the activity.
After giving the delegation a patient hearing, South Goa Collector Anjali Sehrawat later told the media that the technical advisory committee will go into various issues raised by the villagers, including the blasting operations that are taking place close to the Konkan railway tunnel and PWD water lines.
In the memorandum submitted to the District Collector, President of Sao Jose de Areal Villagers Union Freddy Travasso strongly opposed the auction of basalt stone quarries by the Comunidade of Curtorim on February 25 last, saying that mountains and hills of Areal will disappear if the auction of mountainous land spanning an area of 90000 square meters is not scrapped immediately.
It was pointed out that around 40 stone quarries have been in operation in the village which were shut down due to illegal blasting which was objected to by the villagers. The Collector’s attention was drawn to the condition imposed by the Curtorim Comunidade mandating the lessees not to extract the stone up to five meter depth and to restore the pits once the basalt is extracted.
“Till date, the Comunidade of Curtorim as well as the government authorities concerned have failed to get the land restored by filling the pits. The huge pits are a danger to animals as well as human beings, making the hills totally unsafe,” the memorandum stated.
The delegation pointed out that the area where the basalt stone quarrying and blasting are going on is near the Konkan railway tunnel, besides two PWD water supply pipelines of 1500 mm diameter supplying water to entire South Goa. “We, the villagers, strongly oppose the auction of basalt stone quarrying until and unless complete study of the destruction and loss to our village is carried out,” Travasso said, while demanding that the authorities direct the parties concerned to restore the land and compensate the villagers.
The memorandum further drew attention to the Curtorim Comunidade’s decision to hand over the auction area to the forest department for the plantation of social forest trees, adding that the department had planted the trees by incurring huge expenditure.
The Collector later told the media that the technical advisory committee will take cognizance of the points raised by the villagers before taking appropriate action. “The villagers have raised a host of issues. I can assure all these will be taken note of of before taking appropriate action,” Collector Sehrawat added.
