Pale farmers threaten not to allow Chowgule to start mining
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 04 February 2016 21:54 IST
After truckers stalled the work of Sesa Goa, now farmers are up in the arms against Chowgule, another mining firm, for not paying them compensation for the last four years.
“If they don’t pay our compensation, we will not allow the company to start mining”, farmers from Pale in Bicholim taluka have threatened the Chowgule mining firm.
They are now mobilised under the banner of Navdurga Farmers’ Association, demanding the compensation Chowgule was paying them for destroying their paddy fields.
“The company has stopped following the order the Bicholim Mamlatdar and has not paid us since 2012, from the time mining was banned in Goa”, said Bhingo Gawas, president of the NFA.
The Chowgule Company paid its workers during the ban period, then why our compensation is being held up, he asks.
The total amount is hardly Rs 24 lakh, quantified as per the prescribed government rate of Rs six per square metre.
Prabhakar Gawas, another farmer, told the press conference held in Ponda that the company is not following the government orders in spite of the zonal agricultural officer placing the whole report in this regard.
After a long drawn out struggle, the farmers of Ambegal-Pale have been living on the compensation as Chowgule mining company has fully destroyed their fields.
