In the morning it was Motesh Antao who was arrested on the false charge of assaulting government servant and in the afternoon it is his brother Tedoz Antao who is arrested on the charges of assaulting security person of the mining company in his village. And, according to the latest information available police are planning to arrest six more Colamb villagers for their protest against open cast iron ore mining in the Colamb village for forcefully entering the Hiralal Khodidas mining lease operated by Fomento mining company.
Colamb village located in Goa's Sanguem taluka has 23 minng leases covering 1510 hecares of land out of total 1929 hectares of total village land. Sanguem Taluka has 20,000 hectares of land under mining leases. Tatal Goa's land under mining leases is 68,000 hectares.
Over the past few years resistence to mining is gradually building up due to multiple ill effect of the industry on health. Agriculture, livelihood options, forest, drying up of traditional water bodies, siltation of fields and rivers, blasting inside the mines causing cracking of houses etc. Goa is facing acute threat from the minng industry and some individuals and groups like GAKUVED are showing exemplary courage in standing up to the mining industry like never before. So the State in Goa is the state of panic and has launched Police witch hunt against those opposing mining.
Sebastian Rodrigues
If you guys want international backing, contact http://www.miningwatch.ca
ReplyDeleteThey are a Canadian organization who will use their influence with the Canadian politicians to get change done in abusive mining situations.