Transportation of iron ore from mining site 'illegal', Goa govt patronising major scandal

By Claude Alvares*
The civil rights non-profit organisation, Goa Foundation, has accused the Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) of continuing to patronize and support open theft and illegal transport of mineral ores at the expense of the state exchequer and welfare of citizens in the state.
Protests of villagers at Mayem and Pissurlem against such illegal transport -- which is also polluting their environment -- are legitimate and police force should not have been used to support the illegal mining activity against which the protests had erupted. If such a state of affairs continues, mining may not resume for another ten years in the state as it will lead to increasing resistance.
The case of illegal transport from Pissurlem is without doubt a major scandal, and needs an SIT or CBI investigation. A dump of 300,000 MT has been e-auctioned for Rs10 crore when its market value is Rs.90 crore. Instead, Hanuman Porob, social activist, and several innocent villagers were harassed and then arrested and assaulted by police when they questioned the illegal transport.

The police ought to have inquired from the DMG and the Pollution Control Board about NOCs and approvals granted for the transport, which are non-existent. Instead, they decided “to shoot the messenger” instead.
In the case of Mayem transportation, the villagers have objected to movement of transport from a dump outside the Chougule mining lease through the narrow and already degraded road that passes through their village. Dump mining is explicitly prohibited by the apex court. Almost 400 trucks commenced plying on the village road, causing great anxiety and uncontrolled pollution. Red dust invaded people’s homes.

The Pollution Control Board admitted there was no monitoring system installed and neither was it informed of the proposed transport. However, when villagers protested and blocked the movement of trucks, police officers again arrested the protestors, including the lady sarpanch of the village. Bullying by police force will not solve the problems of illegal mining.
If this is the corporate social responsibility of the mining trade, one wonders what is destined to happen if mining extraction resumes full scale in the state.
The Foundation has received reports that more looting of dumps and stacks is scheduled to commence in additional mining areas of the state. The DMG has no staff to place at any of these places to ensure that operations are conducted without harassment and disturbance to village communities. Thus the very procedures laid down for movement of e-auctioned ore are being violated by the department. The situation has become a free-for-all.
Pursuant to its investigations, the Goa Foundation wrote to the Chief Secretary demanding an investigation into the decisions of the DMG to allow mining from dumps at Pissurlem and Mayem (click here for the letter). The letter carries explicit details of the scandals involved in each case.
One hopes the new Chief Minister will look into these endless malpractices of the department and ensure that the concerned officials are shifted out.
---
*Director, Goa Foundation

Comments

Modi govt distancing from Adanis? MoEFCC 'defers' 1500 MW project in Western Ghats

By Rajiv Shah Is the Narendra Modi government, in its third but what would appear to be a weaker avatar, seeking to show that it would keep a distance, albeit temporarily, from its most favorite business house, the Adanis? It would seem so if the latest move of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) latest to "defer" the Adani Energy’s application for 1500 MW Warasgaon-Warangi Pump Storage Project is any indication.

India’s climate tech ecosystem in dire need of both early, growth-stage funding: Report

By Our Representative India’s climate tech ecosystem, which boasts over 800 startups, is in dire need of both early and growth-stage funding to leverage its full potential, according to a report by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (Ventures) and MUFG Bank , Japan. Despite a robust initial funding landscape, with approximately two-thirds of climate tech startups receiving seed capital, growth-stage investments remain critically lacking.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded reaction in the form of a link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

Bayer's business model: 'Monopoly control over chemicals, seeds'

By Bharat Dogra* The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has rendered a great public service by very recently publishing a report titled ‘Bayer’s Toxic Trails’ which reveals how the German agrochemical giant Bayer has been lobbying hard to promote glyphosate and GMOs, or trying to “capture public policy to pursue its private interests.” This report, written by Joao Camargo and Hans Van Scharen, follows Bayer’s toxic trail as “it maintains monopolistic control of the seed and pesticides markets, fights off regulatory challenges to its toxic products, tries to limit legal liability, and exercises political influence.”

105,000 sign protest petition, allege Nestlé’s 'double standard' over added sugar in baby food

By Kritischer Konsum* 105,000 people have signed a petition calling on Nestlé to stop adding sugar to its baby food products marketed in lower-income countries. It was handed over today at the multinational’s headquarters in Vevey, where the NGOs Public Eye, IBFAN and EKO dumped the symbolic equivalent of 10 million sugar cubes, representing the added sugar consumed each day by babies fed with Cerelac cereals. In Switzerland, such products are sold with no added sugar. The leading baby food corporation must put an end to this harmful double standard.

UNEP report on how climate crisis is impacting displacement, global conflicts, declining health

By Shankar Sharma* A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled "A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing," warrants urgent attention from our country’s developmental perspective. The findings, detailed in the report, should be a source of significant concern not only globally but especially for our nation, which has a vast population and limited natural resources.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Militants, with ten times number of arms compared to those in J&K, 'roaming freely' in Manipur

By Sandeep Pandey* The violence which shows no sign of abating in the ongoing Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur is a matter of concern. The alienation of the two communities and hatred generated for each other is unprecedented. The Meiteis cannot leave Manipur by road because the next district North on the way to Kohima in Nagaland is Kangpokpi, a Kuki dominated area where the young Kuki men and women are guarding the district borders and would not let any Meitei pass through the national highway.

75 years of revolution: How China moved away from ideals of struggle for human liberation

By Harsh Thakor* On October 1st, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, a pivotal moment in the struggle for human liberation. From 1949 to 1976, China achieved remarkable social equality and revolutionary democracy, outpacing other developing nations in literacy, health care, agricultural output, and industrial production.

Search This Blog