Suresh Babani Gaonkar and Dhruvanjay V. Harmalkar were arrested by Bicholim Police Sub Inspector Terence Vaz and head costable Pradeep Kubal on May 10 2009 for protesting against Chowgule mining company plying its mining trucks through their property. They were picked by from Sirgao village in North Goa at around 11.30 am without serving any call letters. The arrests came 4 days after the Sirgao Zatra festival in the village with scarce water due the giant mining companies sucking their water sources dry. Once taken into police custody they were put into police lock up. They were not served any meals and were starved till they were bailed out at around 5 pm on the same day. So much for protesting against the marauding mining industry. Sirgao's village wells, springs has gone dry due to mining while its agricultural lands are lying fallow due to unavailability of water for paddy cultivation. And Bicholim DySp Bousset D'Silva came up with a suggestion that these fields be converted into the parking place for the vehicles! NEERI report has declared that mining activities are responsible for downfall of 80 acres of paddy fields due to depletion of groundwater. Sebastian Rodrigues
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