Mr Shantaram Naik M.P. wrote: Mine owners may survive in their own way even with the increase of duty but the fate of 15000 truck owners who are engaged in the business of transporting ore, and in general, fate of the 20% population which directly or indirectly depends upon iron ore activity in Goa, will be doomed.
Response: Truck owners, mine owners, politicians dependents will be at a loss; isn’t it? What about the loss of lives of Goans on Goan roads by these reckless migrant truck drivers? What about loss of health of Goans in mining area due to air and water pollution? What about loss of property due to floods caused by this mining? What about the devastation of forest cover and agricultural land? Can loss of Life be returned? Can loss of Health be rehabilitated to normal? Can Agricultural land and deforested areas be returned to its original with the speed it was destroyed? If it is you Politicians who have permitted the destruction of Goan lives and land in Goa by mining, of what you now claim is of low grade, it is also you politicians who are responsible for the truck owners and other infrastructure of mining which would not have existed had you not allowed indiscriminate mining. You can always rehabilitate them in much needed agriculture and in restoring agricultural land and in reforestation of our Western Ghats. Please stop giving lame excuses as though you are presenting arguments to a Mamlatdar. State clearly that it is not Goa’s economy that will be hit but the Politician’s pockets. Tucarama Naique.
