Goa Federation of Mines Affected People (GOAMAP)takes strong objections to the public statement of Mr. Vishwajit Rane that his Assembly election victory in Goa’s Valpoi constituency is green signal for mining in Sattari.
GOAMAP urges Mr. Rane to to behave as an elected representative and not as an agent of mining industry.
Mr. Rane’s vetting of mining in Sattari is baffling particularly because Sattari is showcase of mining disasters in Pissurlem and Honda villages. The Ecological and Public Health concerns of these villages has grown to deeply critical levels. Its agriculture is totally ruined. People in agriculture has created loss of jobs and employment and paddy fields has been left uncultivable. People there has become ecological refugees.
Mining is huge usury of wealth of Goa. Last year alone mining industry earned Rs.25 lakh crores of rupees and Goa government was paid less than Rs. 30 crores! Mr. Rane is involved in supporting this robbery of Goa actively.
The heath of the villagers of Pissurlem and Honda and even of nearby Kerim villagers who work in Pissurlem mines has gone for a toss with large scale Tuberculosis and Bronchitis due to high level of dust pollutuion. Mr. Rane as Goa’s Health Minister should have known this very well before misguiding people.
GOAMAP wish to remind Mr. Vishwajit Rane that Sattari is one of the major Western Ghats Talukas of Goa which is ecologically sensitive and mining is an enemy of this bio-diversity rich region of Goa.
GOAMAP calls upon the People of Goa to be watchful of the intentions of Mr. Vishwajit Rane and defeat his intentions of expanding mining in Sattari and other parts of Goa.
1. On 16/8/2010 a delegation of Panchawadi Bachao Samiti along with Father Lawrence Rodrigues of St. Anthony’s Church Amblai-Panchawadi met Mr Churchil Alemao Minister for PWD to oppose the 40 hectare Land Acquisition done at Panchawadi by Govt of Goa under an agreement by PWD with M/s Sesa Goa Ltd for Mining Road from Codli to Panchawadi & Loading Bunder at Vizar-Khazan Panchawadi.
2. The request of Panchawadi Bachao Samiti to drop the project since it will adversely affect the ecology & environment & the village as such is not considered by Mr. Churchil.
3. This Land Acquisition is not in public interest & it is for the private benefit of Sesa Goa. However Mr. Churchil supports the project & informed that this is the policy decision of Govt of Goa to allow projects without involvement of public funds. There is no value for Mangroves, paddy fields, environment & ecology. The environment Protection Act, the CRZ have no meaning. Only if any house is affected (i.e. if any house is demolished) due this project then only he will not allow the project. According to him settlements / habitation affected by dust and other environmental pollution have no say. This project is to avoid pollution in some other area & therefore Panchawadi residents will have to suffer pollution. Mining gives service & 2000 truck owners in other areas in the mining industry will survive at the cost of 5000 residents of Panchawadi. The paddy fields & other plantations apart from ecology & environment will be affected by this acquisition. However the truck owners will survive on mining dust & not on bread & butter.
4. PBS’s request to visit the site & judge was out rightly bypassed by the Minister on the grounds that he doesn’t have time. It is well known to the villagers of Panchawadi that politicians have ample time while canvassing for elections & attending opening ceremonies & others private functions of their party workers. They will visit Panchawadi during elections & voters will reward them at that time.
5. According to him oppose to the project since two decades through Gramsabhas have no meaning & the elected body & the Sarpanch is supreme at Panchayat.
6. It appears from the above that we are not in the Democratic country & this is nothing less than Dictatorship or Monarchy. What is the significance of Independence Day Celebration? Is it a million dollar question?
The press is filled with debates about Operation Green Hunt, corporate resource grabbing and displacement issues. But there's an elephant in the room, a larger process of seizing lands, forests and resources on a huge scale, that has so far been totally ignored. Behind this process lies one Central government agency: the Environment Ministry. Most people associate displacement with land acquisition, but that is only one way of displacing people. The Environment Ministry's control over forest land gives it far more power over people's homes, livelihoods and lives – and lakhs are facing brutality, impoverishment and injustice as a result. Consider this:
Under the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980, the Environment Ministry has the final say over the use of 23% of India's land area – areas recorded as forest land in government records. From 2006 (when the Forest Rights Act was passed) till date, in MP and Chhattisgarh alone, the Ministry has illegally handed over (through “in principle” and final clearances) 15,411 hectares of forest land to various projects. The Ministry did not consult or even inform the people who lived on, used and depended on this huge area of land. And that’s just in two States. On August 3rd, 2009, the Ministry admitted this was illegal and issued a circular ostensibly to stop it – but has gone on in the same fashion since.
But the land grab doesn’t stop with forest diversion. Under the FC Act, for every hectare diverted, one hectare of revenue land or two hectares of degraded forest land has to be planted with trees. While this looks good on paper, it makes no environmental sense – a tree plantation is no replacement for a natural forest and often results in biodiversity loss and damage to water tables. But plantations do allow for yet more land grabbing – this time by the Forest Department rather than by projects. The plantations take place on lands that often actually belong to individual forest dwellers or that are village common lands. Thus people lose their lands at both ends – to the projects at the diversion site and to plantations at the afforestation site. The intentions are made clear by a 2003 circular of the Ministry, which explicitly recommends that various types of community forest lands be used for compensatory afforestation. It then requires them to be notified as reserved or protected forests and transferred to the Forest Department – meaning people lose all rights to cultivate, collect firewood or forest produce, or graze their livestock in lands that were in fact their own 1. Between 1980 and 2009, such 'compensatory' plantations took place on 11,83,472 hectares of land – of which 5,54,635 hectares was revenue land which was now brought under Forest Department control.2If the compensatory afforestation required for the illegal diversion in MP and Chhattisgarh were to take place on degraded forest land, the diversion and the afforestation together would require 46,235 hectares of land – larger than the area of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, all illegally grabbed in the space of three years and in just two States.
More land grabbing goes on through plantation programmes and “Joint Forest Management”(JFM). JFM has become a way for the Forest Department to extend its control over more lands and to divide villages in the process. The village committees set up under JFM are controlled by the forest guard, who is their member secretary / joint account holder. Their “participatory” plans for forest protection have to fit entirely within existing Forest Department plans. They are not given any rights but instead promised a share in timber and other revenues in exchange for free labour; and the share is often never paid. As a result, JFM Committees often consist entirely of contractors, traders, elites and others close to the Forest Department, and function as proxies for the Department, to the extent of attacking and evicting other members of villages on the Department's instructions. Enormous sums of money are then pumped into these “participatory” committees by the National Afforestation Programme (Rs. 1056.74 crores was given between 2008 and 20103). The money is routed through Forest Development Agencies, which once again have forest officials in all key positions. In 2008, the Standing Committee on Environment and Forests condemned the current form of afforestation policies as“afforestation ... deprives forest dwellers and tribals / adivasis of some or all of their lands and adversely impact their livelihoods and basic needs – for which they are neither informed, nor consulted, nor compensated.”
And this is not the end. Even as illegal diversion continues, even more money is being funnelled into plantation and afforesation programs:
5,000 crores of international loans were taken by State governments in 2009 for forestry projects, mostly to be implemented through JFM.
More than 11,000 crores of compensatory afforestation funds are being gradually released for spending in the same manner since July 2009 – despite an explicit recommendation from the Parliamentary Standing Committee to overhaul the entire structure.
Another 44,000 crores has now been proposed to be allocated to the supposed afforestation of a staggering 10 million hectares of land under the Green India Mission. Internationally, the government is seeking even more money under the climate change agreement REDD – Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation – once again in the name of plantations and JFM; private companies may also get involved in more plantation activities.
We call upon the government to respect the law and justice and halt the Environment Ministry's land grabbing. We demand:
Full implementation and respect for the provisions of the Forest Rights Act
An end to Joint Forest Management
Afforestation programmes to be under the transparent control of the gram sabha and not under the Forest Department
Full respect for the democratic and legal rights of communities to protect and manage their forests
1.See MoEF letter F.No.2-l/2003-FC dated 20.10.2003.
2. Answer to Unstarred Question No. 2494 to Ministry of Environment and Forests, Lok Sabha, on 22.07.2009.
3. Answer to Unstarred Question No. 4221 to Ministry of Environment and Forests, Lok Sabha, on 21.04.2010.
This article was published in the Herald, Goa, in two parts, in the past week and circulated on Goanet mailing list on January 9, 2010.
By Claude Alvares
goafoundation@gmail.com
The latest offering of Goa's landscape for sale is
on billboards in Delhi. DLF is promising a piece of
paradise "with a view of the sea" for an
excruciatingly stiff price of Rs54 lakh (over the
table). Originally, the proposal was for 580 flats
on a plot of land in Dabolim village. Now, it has
grown to 700 flats, a clubhouse, guest rooms and a
sewage plant that hangs precariously between future
DLF residents and the Goan residents settled
peacefully below the site for decades.
The problem is that the project is to be located on the
graveyard of a dense forest on steep slopes, because that
kind of natural asset is all that Goa in fact has left for
such speculative housing. The project is not intended to meet
the needs of Goans for a house. They simply do not have that
kind of money.
The project has the careless sanction of the Ministry for
Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Chief Town Planner of the
Goa Government, the Mormugao Planning and Development
Authority (MPDA) and the Village Panchayat of Chicalim, in
whose jurisdiction it is located.
Surprisingly, all these permissions have come without hassle
in a state that forbids construction on slopes (due to the
inherent instability of laterite) and which is restrained by
the Supreme Court's orders from activity in forested areas.
The manner in which the approvals have been
obtained is a good lesson in how the rich and
powerful manage to take all authorities for a ride,
especially when the authorities want to be taken
for a ride. The story so far:
Anand Bose, Somnath Zuarkar's son-in-law, gets Vithal and
Indira Naik, a couple who own Survey No: 43/1 of Dabolim
village, to authorise him to develop the plot of 1,02,000 sq
metres and sell it on their behalf. Bose settles the four
'mundcars' on the plot, partitioning off their plots --
totally around 8,400 sq metres -- from the main plot.
Meanwhile, the government under the sweet influence of
developers, has issued an order exempting certain classes of
land from a conversion sanad if they can prove that there was
a structure on the plot when the last survey was conducted in
1971. Though the mundcars' houses and plots have been
partitioned off, Bose files for an exemption from conversion
on their account on January 29, 2007.
The following day, with impressive speed, Levinson Martins
grants the exemption based on a certificate (spurious) issued
by the MPDA, that the entire survey is settlement zone. The
exemption saves the Naiks, Bose and the next developers,
Saravati, approximately Rs 25 lakh or Rs 2.5 million (the
government eventually loses more than a crore or ten million
rupees in conversion charges like this).
Barely a month later, Bose resells 77,300 sq metres
of the plot to Saravati Developers and
Constructions for Rs 29 crore (Rs 290 million).
In view of these astronomical sums, the saving of Rs 25 lakh
on conversion charges is small change for the developers. The
actual saving is in the circumvention of several orders of
the High Court and the Supreme Court that (a) do not allow
construction on slopes above 25 per cent gradient and (b) do
not permit activity in forested plots. Since the High Court
has ordered that no conversion sanad will be issued without
the file going to the Forest Department first, the solution
is to bypass the need to go for a sanad in the first place.
Mission accomplished!
In the meanwhile, Anand Bose is able to procure permissions
from the MPDA and from the Village Panchayat of Chicalim
without any problem, even though the area is forested and
proposed on slopes above 25 per cent gradient.
If MPDA could do the same for ordinary Goans, we would find
it the most efficient of planning authorities. But it never
does. Take a look at the dates and marvel at the speed at
which MPDA can work for its chosen ones:
* Anand Bose applies for a provisional NOC for subdivision of
the plot of 94,370 metres to the MPDA on January 23, 2007.
The MPDA issues the NOC on February 9, 2007.
* He files an application for the same to the Village
Panchayat on January 24, 2007. The Panchayat passes a
resolution on January 25, 2007 and issues the NOC on January
30, 2007.
* The Panchayat receives the application for final NOC on
March 8, 2007, passes a resolution on the same day and issues
the order on March 12, 2007.
* Anand Bose applies for construction licenses on September
27, 2007, the panchayat passes the resolution on October 1,
2007 and issues the licenses on October 3, 2007.
So why is everyone complaining that applications to
planning authorities and village panchayats
sometimes take two years, together with a lot of
visiting of offices and harassment? The case of
Anand Bose indicates the complete contrary.
After his sale of 77,300 sq metres to Saravati for Rs 29
crore (Rs 290 million), Anand Bose transfers all the
permissions and NOCs he has obtained to Saravati Developers.
Saravati now has 77,300 sq metres, whereas the earlier
permissions are for the plot of 94,000 sq metres. So Saravati
asks the MPDA to amalgamate the plots and grant a fresh
subdivision. MPDA receives their application on August 28,
2008 and grants the provisional NOC for the new subdivision
on the same day. Wow!
On September 1, 2008, Saravati applies for final NOC for
subdivision and simultaneously submits development plans for
580 residential units, with a 35-room club house and other
facilities. The Panchayat forwards the new proposal to the
MPDA on September 15, 2008.
The proposal comes up before the MPDA in November 2008, even
though it is not on the agenda, under 'Any Other Business',
after the Deputy Speaker (who posed recently for the media
with a free garbage compactor given by DLF to Chicalim
village) asks to know why the file has not been put up for
approval of the Authority. Victoria Fernandes is chairperson.
She says the project is categorised as a mega housing
project. The MPDA cannot, therefore, discuss the matter
without a site inspection to verify its infrastructure and
other requirements. The matter is deferred for a site
inspection. This decision is not communicated by MPDA Member
Secretary R K Pandita to Saravati, knowing full well that the
latter can file an appeal for deemed approval on expiry of
three months. On January 13, 2009, Saravati takes the matter
out of the MPDA and files an appeal before the Town and
Country Planning Board (TCP).
The Board takes up the matter on Februrary 11,
2009, but Pandita does not attend on grounds that
he is not feeling well. The Board defers the matter
and then conveniently meets several months later.
Saravati claims it now has deemed approval, since
the Board too has not taken a decision in three
months.
First, Saravati did not pay conversion charges. Now, it gets
by without paying development charges. When an RTI request is
posed in respect of whether development charges have been
paid, MPDA says in writing it has no knowledge. This is a
fine example of a welfare state, where the poor pay taxes and
the rich are waived land conversion and development charges.
Saravati now demands that the Panchayat grant it construction
licenses. The Panchayat decides that the Gram Sabha must look
into the project. A few days later, on August 17, 2009, the
Panchayat reverses its stand and issues the licenses.
Let me quote the reason set out in the Panchayat's
construction license and you will hope that this
happens to you as well one day: "As regards to the
approval to be obtained from MPDA, Vasco, which is
further deemed to be approved under Section 44 of
the Town and Country Planning Act which further
deemed to be approved by the Planning Board
constituted further it is deemed to be approved
under Section 45 of the Town and Country Planning
Act by the Planning Board constituted under the Law
& on the basis of legal opinion obtained & given by
Adv. Zeller C de Souza is considered by the
Panchayat vide resolution dated 9.7.2009."
So, a Rs 130-crore (Rs 1300 million) project for the rich of
Delhi gets by with two deeming approvals.
You may say this is predictable behaviour from authorities
towards a well-heeled developer who knows how to smoothen the
flow of his applications and get his permissions. But what of
the Government of India? Doesn't the project require
environment clearance?
It does. But as we shall see, there's no problem here as
well!
In April 2008, Saravati files an application for
environment clearance (EC) with the Ministry of
Environment & Forests (MoEF). As per procedure, the
proposal goes in June to the Expert Appraisal
Committee (EAC). Among the issues raised by the EAC
is a demand for a contour map that would indicate
slopes. There is also a query raised about how a
residential project can have 36 guest rooms. The
project proponent is asked to get a clearance from
the Central Ground Water Board. The EAC minutes of
the meeting record a conclusion that environment
clearance is not recommended for the present.
The file comes back to the EAC three months later in October
2008. This time, the EAC simply abandons its earlier queries
and instead lists a new set of queries that are far more
innocuous. Gone is the need to produce data on slope contours
or an NOC from the Central Ground Water Board. Instead,
considerations like "dead-ends of roads within the plot
having proper roundabouts" and "treated water being used to
flush toilets" are the points upon which the EAC decides the
project will now be cleared.
In a short while, the project proponent submits the
relevant details and, in December 2008 the EAC, now
assured that "all queries are answered", recommends
environment clearance with a "silver" grading to
boot. The environment clearance is issued by the
Ministry of Environment on February 2, 2009. The
two most important environmental impact issues of
the Saravati/DLF project -- construction on steep
slopes and forest -- are both immaculately kept out
of the committee's deliberations.
It needs to be noted here that the effective functioning of
the EAC depends to a great extent on the integrity of its
member secretary. The EAC meets every two months. Each time
the committee meets, dozens of projects are placed before it
for approval. The minutes run into several pages. All members
never attend all meetings. In the circumstances, earlier
minutes are not closely re-examined, nor are salient features
of earlier recommendations recalled. The member-secretary who
prepares the agenda notes and writes the minutes -- and who
is eminently approachable for Delhi developers -- can, with
little difficulty, take the "expert" committee into whichever
hole it wants.
But can the EAC itself be absolved of blame even in such
circumstances?
Hardly. The location of every plot in the country is
available on Survey of India topo sheets. If an EAC is not
able to access such easily available data, this must reflect
on the competence of its experts. Faced with the fact that
the plot had slopes above 25 per cent gradient, there was no
chance of approval. For, in 2000, the Ministry had accepted
in toto the report of the Committee on "Identifying
Parameters for Designating Ecologically Sensitive Areas in
India" headed by Adviser to the Planning Commission of India
Pronab Sen, which recommended no clearance for development in
such terrain. There are also now High Court orders to the
same effect.
Similarly with forested areas; even school kids
know how to get Google Earth pictures for any plot
in the country. The resolution is so good that
foresters claim they can distinguish even
individual species of trees on the ground. The
Google Earth picture of the site under discussion
shows it having dense vegetation. A single site
visit would also have confirmed that the area is
thickly forested. But the EAC never visits a site;
nor does it show any inclination to have facts
independently verified. It seems like nothing can
be done when we are dealing with people who want to
shut their eyes or, worse, are simply willing to
have the wool pulled over their eyes.
In October 2008, the state government's Task Force on
planning for Goa for the year 2021 demarcated the
Saravati/DLF site as a 'no-development' zone on the grounds
of its impermissible gradient (more than 25 per cent). The
Task Force is headed by the Chief Minister. Its de facto
chairman is the internationally famous architect Charles
Correa, and assisting him is former Chief Town Planner of the
Government of India Edgar Ribeiro. They relied on Survey of
India topo sheets. On this count alone, the Goa government
could not have recommended the project for environment clearance.
However, under the EIA Notification of 2006, anyone can apply
directly to the MoEF for environment clearance, bypassing the
state government. Ever since the Ministry disembowelled the
entire procedure and turned it into a set of empty
formalities to be speedily gone through -- data or no data --
environment clearance has become easier to get than a
driver's learning license. In fact, you don't even have to
submit a photograph of yourself!
Once you have it in your pocket, all other clearances come
automatically. The environment clearance is granted within a
maximum period of six months. For housing projects, there is
not even the courtesy of a public hearing. There is,
therefore, no scope for any inputs from the state government
or from the public. The applicant can fib and get away with
whatever it wants an extremely gullible EAC to believe.
The environment clearance becomes a label trademarked by the
Ministry for officially sponsored forest and hill
destruction. That the issue of environment clearances has
ruined the reputation of the Ministry is already common
knowledge. The Prime Minister himself -- as Cabinet Minister
of Environment -- acknowledged before the States' Environment
Ministers' conference in August 2009 that ECs had become a
source of corruption.
It is most unfortunate that the new Minister of State for
Environment -- who is trying hard to dispel the notion that
the Ministry is a red light area -- has not succeeded in
introducing any changes in this most important section of the
department, which has actually pioneered the ecological
destruction of the country through its atrocious clearances.
In the short space of two years, the MoEF has
issued environment clearances for over 150 mines in
Goa, cumulatively involving the excavation, dumping
and extraction of some 120 million tonnes of mud
and ore annually, sanctioning unparalleled
destruction of Goa's interior, forested areas.
Environment clearances are being granted now to
airports, more mines, four lane highways, bridges,
sea bridges, mega housing -- all in a tiny state
that is not more than 3,200 sq km in area.
In an unprecedented move, Goa Environment Minister Aleixo
Sequeira wrote to Union Minister of State for Environment and
Forests Jairam Ramesh, officially protesting the policy of
granting such clearances without even the knowledge or
consent of the state authorities and mostly on the basis of
false or deficient environment impact assessments (EIAs).
Can Goa's environment survive this onslaught?
Hardly. The coastal parts of Goa already look as if
they have been battered by a typhoon of concrete
and garbage. Thanks to unrelenting mining, the
interior areas look like the surface of the moon.
The MoEF, in the meanwhile, is considering
environment clearances for eight more five star
hotels in Goa (all owned by Delhi businessmen) and
even more group housing projects for sale to
speculators. It appears it will cease its efforts
only when the last tree and the last blade of grass
in Goa is overrun, climate change and sea-level
rise notwithstanding.
[Dr Claude Alvares is a prominent environmentalist, founder
of the Goa Foundation, and the author of 'Homo Faber:
Technology and Culture in India, China and the West: 1500 to
the Present Day, Allied, Bombay 1979. More of his writings
here http://www.typewriterguerilla.com/ ]
School students squatted on road to block mining trucks from operating on December 17, 2008. The day concluded with Police Lathi Charge on Ambaulim villagers.
Adv. John Fernandes addressing the Press Conference along with other villagers on December 21, 2008 in Ambaulim. On his desk is picked of Police batons broken after the lathi charge of December 17, 2008. Adv. John has been charged with attempt to murder by Police officer at Quepem Police Station. (Above Picture is by Shaweta Anand)
Injured hand in Police Lathi Charge on December 17, 2008. This is the hand of brave Ambaulim Woman Remiz Fernandes who engaged herself in pitched battle with Goa Armed Police personnel. Police was ordered lathi Charge by Quepem Deputy Collector Vanancio Furtado.
Ambaulim villagers being taken in Police Van to Quepem Police Station. William Luis is watching out from the police van window on way to police station after the Lathi Charge.
Ambaulim Woman is being beaten up in presence of PI Santos Dessai.
PI Santos Dessai at his aggressive self against the mining protesters.
Goa Police inflicting blows on Ambaulim villagers...
Goa Police in uniform trying to push Ambaulim villager...
Tribal woman in Combat with Goa Police...
Male policemen manhandling Ambaulim Women...
Throwing one Ambaulim villager in Police Jeep...
The combat scene...
In the middle of Lathi Charge...
Vanful of Goa Police unleashed uncalled for violence on Ambaulim villagers protesting air pollution and traffic hazard to their children on road from mining trucks.
Scene moments before the Lathi Charge...
In the middle 0f heated arguments PI Santos Dessai, Vanancio Furtado (Deputy Collector) with William Luis and Adv. John Fernandes
Negotiations getting tense ...
Sebastian Rodrigues with Pictures from Ambaulim villagers
According to the information received today morning Goa Police has criminally charged human rights lawyer and Journalist Adv. John Fernandes working in defense of communities affected with Goa’s powerful open cast iron ore mining industry. Adv. John Fernandes has been charged with section 307 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for Attempt to murder on 17th December 2008 at Quepem Police Station, Quepem, Goa.
He has not yet been arrested. Please call up Quepem Police station to inquire more about the case involving Adv. John Fernandes at Quepem Police Station Phone number 0832-2662253. You may cite cr. No. 87/08 and 86/08. His wife Paulina Fernandes too is charged with rioting, unlawful assembly etc along with him on the same day.
It clear indication that police at the instruction of mining industry are involved in targeting human rights defenders as well as their families with criminal cases.
Adv. John Fernandes writes for Goa’s well known English daily Herald as Quepem correspondent.
According to the message received today morning at around 11 am police appeared in Ambaulim with the spade and clicked photos. Police Inspector Santosh Dessai has alledeged in local marathi daily - Tarun Bharat issue of December 18, 2008 that Adv. John attempted to murder policemen while lathi charging the protestors against transportation of Iron Ore from the road in their village causing enormous dust pollution and traffick congestions.
You may also support Adv. John Fernandes directly at his mobile number 09822169547 or at his e-mail: joao_ferns@yahoo.com.
Colamb villagers one again foiled attempts of the Fomento mining company to begin transportation of Ore. Yestesterday March 11 2008 was another testing day for the Colamb Villagers in their battle for survival and dignified living. Mining company mobilized two jeep loads of policemen in an attempt to bulldoze the opposition even as the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court has admitted the Case by Rama Velip, Dr. Avadooth Prabhudessai and Goa Foundation.
Yesterdays action of the Fomentos confirms the fact that it has no shame whatsoever in invoking police repression. Police were brought to the mining site and were hosted with lunch party with dust flying in the air at the mining site of Hiralal Khodidas operated by Fometos.
Forest departmet officials sent their seven member delegation to the mining site and blocked the road passing through Forest department. It is not very clear as to what the mining company is trying to achieve through repeated summons to the police at the mining site.
Villagers however have stepped up their vigilance on the mining site leading to chocking of the mining company's bussiness to a great extend. These adivasi villagers are claiming that this mining company is responsible for the deteriorating condition of their agriculture.
Roads created by the mining company illegally throught the Forest bas been blocked in his manner. Now both the Forest department as well as the villagers are involved in vigilance on the mining site. The struggle in this village is intensifying with every passing day. Yestderday morning aroung 70 villagers maintained vigilance at the mining site.
This is the way Fomentos are involved in burying forest alive in Colamb, Sanguem. Authorities in Goa are yet to take action against the mining company. Petition has been admitted in Goa Bench of Bombay High Court against the company. Petitioners includes Rama Velip, Dr. AvadoothPrabhudessai and Goa Foundation.
Even as the High Court admitted the petition the very next day morning two police jeeps landed today - March 11 2004 to help mining company to carry on the mining smoothly. Perhaps mining company have lost all the patience with law and Judiciary and heading towards Contempt.
Mining activities on this Fomento mine is going on currently. However it is not able to carry on transportation of Ore, and that is causing headache for the mining company. It is nearly two months that transportation of Ore is blocked by the local villagers, State forest department, GAKUVED and Goa Foundation.
Villagers have been going on the mining site. The above picture is of 11th February 2008 when GAKUVED, Goa Foundation, Goa BachaoAbhiyan and the Villagers of Colamb carried out joint inspection of this mine that is in operation under Police protection.
This mine is right in between the Forest and the agriculture of the villagers of Colamb. It has caused siltation of fields and traditional water ways along with drying up of nearby fresh water springs. Horticulture too is badly affected due to Fomentos infringements of People's fundamental right to life.
And of all the groups Goa Police have been protecting the mining company with their jeeps on the mining site. The above picture is of February 11th 2008.
However Goa Police have been repeatedly challenged by the villagers of Colamb. Police repression has been condemned time and again. Yet lucrative profits make it extremely difficult for Goa Police and mining company to refrain from harassing the villagers. The stage is set for another Battle ahead.
Patricia Pinto of Goa BachaoAbhiyan (GBA) visited this mining site on February 11 2008. She is also the member of Task Force for drawing up Goa Regional Plan 2021. This mining trip provided some exposure to her. She expressed her solidarity with the Colamb villagers.
Dr. Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation questioned Goa Police stationed on Fomento mining site on what they were doing in Forest matters on February 11, 2008.
This board displayed at the mining site of Fomentos provides some details of this mine, including that this lease concession was granted in 1949. In 1949 is Colonial State of Portugal that was ruling Goa. Colonial legacy in Goa continues unabated.
Sensing trouble from villagers Goa government increased police security for the Fomento mining company operating in Colamb, Sanguem to the peril of the village agriculture. Today morning from 8.00 am onwards one bus and three jeeps load of police (around 40 police personnel) are forced to inhale deadly dust at Hiralal and Khodidas mine bearing TC. No. 06/49. While villagers are fighting to protect their livelihood sources State Government of Goa is determine to reduce the villagers to beggars. There is something drastically gone wrong in the heads of those ruling Goa today.
The largely adivasi population of Colamb has decided to intensify thier agitation by adopting various methods to shut down the mining company. Kicks of Police force they received yesterday cannot silence thier voices nor thier resolve to struggle with all thier might. Police yesterday could escape with apologies for beating up villagers. but is high time that some heads in the Police department roll. ASI P V Desai must be penalized for his irresponsible behaviour. More importantly mining company who has directed police officers to behave violently must resist from this temptation as it is only going to backfire at the mining industry in Goa and particularly fomentos. Goa government must direct police force not to act as paid agents of fometo mining company any longer as people are now vigilant and revoke police protection accorded to the mining company against the will of the Colamb People.
Hats off to Colamb People for forcing Police to admit its fault and forcing them to publicly apologize yesterday evening.
Believe it or not Goa Police has gone frustrated and berserk at Colamb villagers stubborn resistance to Fomento mining company. At around 3.00 pm today two police Jeeps caught hold of one villagers Agnelo Dias from Kevona, Colamb in Sanguem Taluka, put him inside on of the two jeeps and kicked him with shoes on at upper portion of his thigh.
There are around 10 policemen in two Police jeeps surrounded by around 100 Colamb villagers in Kevona, Colamb when the last reports came in. Villagers are questioning the Polie in their villagers on Goa Polices' act of terror. against the villagers.
The police frustration is understandable considering it has been providing police protection to disastrous Fomento open cast iron mine bearing TC. No. 06/49 in the name of Hiralal Khodidas. Villagers had attacked this mine on January 21 2008 and subsequently company operated the mine with Police protection between January 23 2008 up to January 29 2008. State intelligence agency CID tried its level best to instigate the villagers to attack the mine again so that villagers could be arrested en mass a la Salleli. However People proved smarter and did not attack the mining company. Instead Gawda, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar Federation (GAKUVED) led the silent morcha on January 28 2008 in Panjim and hogged publicity on front page of Marathi newspapers with its banner "Save Colamb from Mining Terrorism".
Transportation of Ore is being done through forest areas illegally and for this GAKUVED has served 48 hours deadline on Chief Conservator Forest. 48 hours deadline is also served to carry demolition of weigh bridge illegally constructed in forest land at Colamb by Fomentos. Terror tactic of Goa Police today is going on in Colamb under this background in Colamb, Sanguem. Shame Goa Police Shame! You'll have stooped so low and hit Agnelo Dias below belt and its repercussions will be felt for a long time to come for this State of Goa. We have not yet forgotten as to how PI Sammy Tavares was used by same Fometo ten years ago to Kick and humiliate Surya Sawant of Cacra nagrik Vikas Samiti at Goa Velha Police Station.
This ongoing clash is between the citizens who pay taxes to State, Police who are paid and maintained by public taxes by kick below belt very people who legally pay them, and between the mining company that is well know for kicking people's stomachs.
It would be indeed pleasant for Goa as well as Goa Police if it resists temptation from mining companies to undertake to do their dirty job. It is hoped that Police authorities - IPG, DGP, SP (South), Home Minister, Chief Minister, and Governor Jamir take note of this and direct Goa Police to behave themselves once and for all. For People principal enemies are not Police but mining company Fomento at present stage. Please do not behave silly Goa Police.
Goa Police withdraw immediately from Colamb now! We don't pay taxes to harrass and terrorise Goa's common People. Don't be a shield for Fomentos. Shame Goa Police! Shame!! Shame!!!
This is report MAND received yesterday January 23, 2008. We reproduce this even as same situation viz. mining with police protection and police attempsts to arrest Colamb villagers continues even on January 24, 2008.
Today January 23, 2008 is historic day in the life of India’s Goa State; People’s struggle to defend their land and agriculture has touched historic high – Goa police are providing police protection to further mining loot and mineral plunder in Sanguem Taluka’s Colamb village.
Quepem Police station has registered over 100 cases against the Colamb villagers that participated in historic march to the mine bearing TC No. 06/1949 belonging to Hiralal Khodidas and operated by Fometos.
Fomentos caused insult to the will of the Colamb villagers and Goa’s Adivasi peace loving community by deploying police force in its mine at Colamb, Sanguem and resuming the mining operation of open cast mine. Fomentos owned by businessmen Avadooth Timblo resumed its mining operation under police force. At the same time company filed criminal cases against the villagers for unlawful assembly, rioting, threats to cause death and grievous hurt, intention to break breach of peace, criminal trespass and abduction.
Today morning police began to swoop down upon the villagers with intention to arrest them. Goa’s men in Khaki’s trips to villagers’ houses reminded few of the dictatorial Salazar regimes of erstwhile Portuguese colonial State that had granted the mining leases including this one before so called Goa liberation of 1961. There was hardly any resemblance of Goa being free and progressive State today in Colamb. In fact it was more like Pakistan under emergency with four police jeeps patrolling mining site with over 50 policemen including women in police force inhaling dangerous mining dust in exchange for possibly diesel and few peanuts from Fomentos. Police were expecting the villagers to confront them today and had come with all the necessary preparation after one days rest yesterday when mine was kept closed. However it is unnecessary expenditure and burden on the State resources to provide such a large number of Police personnel for this purpose unless mining company treats Goa Police as its private security. Going by the turn of the events so far this is indeed is the case that needs urgent attention from Public who pay taxes to the State and demand accountability as to why State government is letting this show go on.
Though Police could not arrest any one so far till late night, they did show remarkable swiftness in searching the houses of the villagers; three times cops made trips to the Peoples’ houses. The police action in this case of acting against the citizens of India empowered wilh all the constitutional civil liberties and fundamental rights is indeed in sharp contrast to the way same Goa police treated the matter of murder through mine collapse of over 5 people by the mining company in Tollem, Sanguem in 2006. Police must make it public as to how many people has been charged and arrested and tried for murder? Why this case was hushed up without a single arrest? Which are the people against whom FIR has been registered? Why police are acting lethargic in arresting people in this case of Tollem Mine collapse? The answer is simple and straight forward: it is precisely because the culprit is the same: Fomento mining company. And of coarse we know the old saying ‘One who pays the bagpiper calls the tune’. Why is this state of Goa Police?
Mining industry in Goa operates its way with long chain of frauds. Take this example of Colamb itself: the chief logic of the police and the mining company is that it has got environmental clearance from the Environment ministry in Delhi. This clearance is based on the public hearing form this particular mining site that was held couple of years ago without any awareness of the same amongst public in Colamb and the affected people. And the site of this public hearing was over 30 kms away from the mining site, in Margao. This is a fraud by which Fomento mining company tricked environment ministry to give environmental clearance. It is another matter that Delhi is treating Goa as its colony for the exploitation of mineral wealth with scant respect to Peoples’ expression even in the mandatory public hearings: the case of Sarvan mining of Zantye mining company is the case in focus.
The appeal here is to the individual policemen on duty towards Fomentos: you are fortunate to have got this posting at the Colamb mining site to experience the beauty and splendor of this magnificent village. You’ll are brothers and sisters as well as citizens of this land. Would you’ll like this village to disappear from the Map of Goa? Do you like to create mass starvation, misery and hunger for people of Goa? Now that you’ll have spend day on the mine, how you’ll are feeling? Inhaling mining dust is dangerous, at least you must demand protective masks from your higher officers or your lungs will grow weaker and susceptible for tuberculosis.
Now imagine situation of the villagers in these circumstances where mining industry is on a roll, if your family was located in this situation, would you not revolt and protest? No police officer with self respect and dignity, and worth his salt would tolerate mining terrorism in Goa. This is being written only to let you know that public in Colamb does consider Police as their principal enemy. It considers mining company of Fomentos as their principal enemy simply because it is involved in such a process that will rob them of their food and shelter – the two fundamental necessities for living. This is an invitation to Goa Police to stand in Solidarity with the struggling people of Colamb and be one in their struggle for united we could shape Goa into prosperous place to live in with our agriculture and forest intact, and show mining it door ones and for all: for mining is single largest terrorist action, with central government permission or without it. It is indeed deep feeling of disgust that Goa Police is involved in protecting terrorist activity. Please detach from this immediately and take lead in dismantling this mine yourself. People of Colamb will remember Goa police of this patriotic act on their part as only model citizens can do. Surely there some highly respectable officers in Goa Police that will surely respond this call on urgent basis.
Goa is mostly known for being a top tourist destination, but away from the coast mining is the major industry, and it is severely impacting local water. Click here for video.
Forest Tribes Lose Rights
For video on takeover of tribal forest spaces by the Indian Forest Department click the links here.
