Once again innocent people who had nothing to
do with mining and its profits and loot had to suffer once again. Lakhs and
lakhs of people be it the office-goers, students answering their exam, the sick
and the elderly, individuals who had to board flights had to bear the brunt of
an uncalled for bandh.
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| What happened to section 144 IPC |
By holding the common man to ransom by
blocking both the Mandovi bridges, laying siege to the Betim-Panjim ferry
paralyzing the movement of traffic from north to south of the river Mandovi and
beyond what has the mining effected
people got – in fact they have lost the sympathy of their brethren from the
non-mining areas.
When mining was booming, these same people
who are now crying foul saying that their only source of income have been
abolished were rolling in huge mullah day in and day out, while the lakhs of
people who suffered being stuck in traffic for hours today (19th
March 2018) were doing the same job, travelling the same grueling long
distances to work for almost the same salary while the same protesters were
laughing to the bank when the same protesters were laughing to the bank.
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| Students, elders, sicks, office-goers all stranded. |
Lakhs of people, students, the sick and
elderly who suffered today due to the bandh never held protests to demand a
share of mining pie from those who protested today, hence why cause
inconvenience the general public.
Similar bandh was called earlier in 2012 and
caused hardship to the people. It was said then and same sentiments are being
sounded now that mine owners and MLAs from the mining areas are behind the
bandh and I tend to believe it as otherwise individual protestors would not
like to face lathis or attend court hearings subsequently.
If some protestors have received injuries due
to the police lathi-charge I would not blame the police for it as they had to
restore law and order. The blame wholly lies on the very people who
participated in the protest as they are the same people who celebrated, hailed
and garlanded Manohar Parrikar for re-starting
the mines without following
proper procedures or guidelines of the top court.
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| Logjam at the Panjim-Betim ferry. |
The know-it-all chief minister of Goa Manohar
Parrikar misinterpreted SC order and wrongly handled the issue by renewing the
leases instead of auctioning it, because of which the top court in the land
dealt a harsh blow on mining which resulted in the bandh.
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| Caught in the traffic jam for 2 hours on Porvorim side of Mandovi bridge. |
One of leaders of the protestors was heard
telling the North Goa Collector Nila Mohanan during her appeal to let the
traffic flow that “in a democracy people can protest anywhere”, this is totally
brazen, giving the sense that we are above the law and we can do anything. It
also indicates that behind the protestors are the mining tycoons and crumb fed
politicians.
The administration and the police also cannot
be absolved of the manner in which they handled their situation. When Section
144 IPC was imposed how come they allowed hundreds of mining affected protesters
to gather at Panjim KTC?
This indicates that the administration and
the police who have become puppets of the politicians were acting on their
behalf and that was the reason for lathi charge.
What was the reason for the Goan ministers
and MLAs to rush to Delhi to request the Union government to bring about an
ordinance to override the SC order so as to allow continuance of mining. They
should have either filed a review petition in the top court or adopted the
directions given by the Supreme Court. But our career politicians thought they
were smarter approaching the Union government giving hope to the mining
dependents but when the central government refused to intervene the hopes of
the mining class dashed and resultant is the call for the bandh and hardships
and inconvenience caused to lakhs of innocent people.
