Six villages observe bandh to protest mining

Rajkot: Six villages in Mahua and Talaja talukas of Bhavnagar district observed a bandh for the second day on Friday to protest against limestone mining by a private cement company near Bambhor village.
A month ago, ugly clashes had broken out between protesting farmers and the cops when they had tried to enter the mining site. Police had resorted to heavy lathicharge and arrested around 90 farmers. As part of the protest, farmers did not even send their wards to schools.

Recently, the Gujarat High Court has ordered the concerned magistrate to initiate criminal proceeding in the atrocity committed by police on farmers or lodged an FIR to investigate the allegations of excesses.

Farmers are opposed to limestone mining on the grounds that their fields would be rendered non-fertile. They said the water in their wells has also turned saline as the company digs land 300 foot to 400 foot deep to extract limestone.

Bharat Bhil, a local farmer leader, said, “Despite our continuous protests, mining activity continues in the area. We had sent proposed that the government officials, elected representatives of our area and company officials should hold a meeting with us to understand our problem. However, they didn’t pay heed.”

District collector Hasmukh Patel said, “I have yet to receive the copy of order but as per my knowledge National Green Tribunal (NGT) has rejected the petition of farmers. We can’t stop mining when the company has obtained necessary permission from state and central government and there is no stay by the court.”