Seems quite like an uncanny coincidence. Both of Goa’s majordrivers “ Mining and Tourism “ start after the monsoons almost simultaneously.While the charter season kicks off on October 6, the mining truckers dread tothink of life beyond Ganesh Chovth. October 1 is a date that they are dreadingthe most.
“Forget Chovth, our worries are the diwaala (losses) that we face for Diwali this year” says NilkanthGawas, President, All Goa Mining Truck Owners Association. Gawas explains howthe situation is not as simple as it seems. “While mining business grew upsteadily since 2000, it was only in the past five years that many people wereable to afford to tippers. For them, each day of shutdown means a loss thatthey have to top up from their own pockets”, Gawas explains.
This year has been ridden with hiccups. The tipper ownershave to keep their drivers at half their salaries all through the four monthsof monsoon, invest in the regular maintenance of the tippers and despite nowork, have to keep on paying their loans. “But all this was fine as we knewthat after Chovth, tipper operations will begin. This time is different. We areclueless and that is what is scary”, explains Arjun Gaonkar, another localtipper association president.
Views range from the scary-committing suicide- to theinevitable-coming out on the streets- in the mining heartland as people searchfor answers. There are generations who have worked at the mines, there areyoung men who took loans to have a tipper of their own, there are women who investedin jewelry to get their daughters married off in and fathers who sent theirsons to study and get a better paying stable job. All these people had onething in common, not mines of their own nor leases to extract. They simplyinvested in the transport of these ores. For them, who dug, how much did he dig,what money he made, never mattered. Their only concern was a truckload fortheir tipper and the payment after every trip.
Justice Shah or MoEF Minister Jayanthi Natarajn and evenChief Minister Manohar Parrikar would not understand. This is not about a fewmine owners getting rich by foul means. This is about honest, hardworkingpeople investing their hard earnings into transporting a load of iron ore.People who wonder how much they will bleed before they earn their livelihoodagain.
