MARGAO: While cries of 'ossai ossai' and 'ghumche katar ghum' rent the air as Curchorem celebrated the government-sponsored Shigmo on Thursday, the spirit of the celebrations, however, were visibly dampened as anxiety and desperation over the prospects of mining shutdown from Friday casting a dark shadow.
A day ahead of D-Day, the mining belt bore a peculiar atmosphere, like that of an army retreating from the frontiers. Mining machinery and earthmoving equipment were moved out of mining leases and trucks were shifted to safer places. Though Thursday was the last day for mining excavation and transportation, contrary to expectations, most trucks stayed off the roads, probably owing to the hectic mine closure activities underway inside the leasehold areas.
"Transportation from only one mine is happening today. The work of dismantling the plants and disposing of the materials is going on at a hectic pace inside all mining leases," a source associated with the industry told TOI. Most of the mines had begun shifting machinery, material and mineral ore from inside the leases to their plots, yards and jetties, days ahead of the March 15 deadline.
With uncertainty looming large over the resumption of mining operations, it's the question of livelihood that has come to haunt the thousands whose lives are largely centred around mining activities.
There's a whole economy that has been built around the mining industry - truck owners and drivers, machine operators, truck mechanics, tyre retreaders and truck spare parts dealers, restaurants, traders of consumer durables. It's a symbiotic economy that thrives solely on mining and the shutdown will have a cascading effect on all types of trading activities in this area. If truck owners are worried about repaying their bank instalments, families of mining dependents are alarmed over the prospect of long-term closure of mines.
"It's going to be a pretty bad situation - even worse than the 2012 mining ban," a member of the Sanvordem panchayat,
Sanjay Naik, said. "Back then, people had made enough money, which saw them through the bad times. This time, mining was just beginning to pick up when another closure has come about. People had invested all their savings and secured loans to make their rusting trucks roadworthy and businesses ready for the mining season. Their livelihoods are now at stake."
Pent up anger and frustration also found expression during conversations with local village leaders.
"These political leaders have let us down,"
Dharbandora deputy sarpanch and president of Dharbandora truck owners association,
Vinayak Gauns, said. "They were talking of recovery of thousands of crores of rupees. The looters have gone scot free, it's the common man like a truck owner who is made to bear the brunt of the mining loot." Gauns said that within the next few days there were plans of organising a morcha in
Panaji of mining dependents to protest the mining closure.
