Caurem villagers march in the town, protestors released
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 23 March 2016 19:22 IST
Five protesting villagers of Caurem were released on bail today while hundreds of villagers peacefully demonstrated in Quepem town, in protest of transporting iron ore with the help of outsider contractor.
Five villagers, led by Caurem-Pirla panch Ravindra Velip, were arrested on the second consecutive day yesterday when they stopped truck transport of e-auctioned ore from the Fomento mine.
Goa government is turning blind eye towards their demand of running truck transport of village ore through a local co-operative society.
Pending order on this demand before the Administrative Tribunal, Fomento had started transporting the e-auctioned ore by hiring a transport contractor from outside the village during Shigmo festival.
While most of the villagers were not in the village as they move from house to house in all the surrounding villages during Shigmo, around eight locals had tried to stop the truck transport since Monday.
Following protests, the transport contractor has presently stopped the ore transport till Sunday, now citing reason of the ongoing Shigmo festival.
As the five protesting villagers had refused to sign a bond at the police station yesterday, they were produced in the court and remanded to 12-day judicial custody.
“As they have now moved for a bail, all five protestors would be released by the court from Sada sub-jail”, Quepem PI Pravin Gawas told goanews.com.
Hundreds of villagers from Caurem and Sulcorna, in the meanwhile, took out a morcha in the Quepem town today, which was also supported by the villagers of Naqueri-Betul, who are protesting against Defence Expo.
The morcha was led by Nilesh Gaonkar, Narendra Velip and Abhijit Prabhudesai.
The leaders alleged that the BJP government is harassing the local villagers for the benefit of the miners while denying benefits of mining to the locals.
