GMPF urges Rahul to provide counsel to pursue matter in SC

NT NETWORK

PANAJI

The Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) Saturday urged All India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi to provide a qualified senior counsel to pursue the mining matter in the Supreme Court.

The GMPF is an umbrella organisation of mining dependants in the state.

“We urged Rahul to see that mining activity resumes in Goa. We also requested him to provide us with a good senior counsel to represent our case at the earliest,” president of GMPF Puti Gaonkar said while interacting with reporters after meeting the Congress party’s national president at a starred hotel in Dona Paula.

He said that Gandhi has assured them that the Congress party will start ‘sustainable mining’ in Goa after coming to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Gaonkar blamed BJP MPs from Goa for doing nothing for their cause. He said that the members of GMPF will campaign against BJP during the forthcoming Lok Sabha election and make people aware of how the BJP-led government in the state and at the Centre failed to take necessary steps for early resumption of mining activity.

“We are on the roads today because of them (BJP MPs). If their government (BJP at the Centre) had brought an amendment to the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) or MMDR Act then the mining issue would have been resolved,” he said.

“We will not vote for the persons, who have not solved our problem. We will also campaign against them on our platform and not on any political party’s platform,” he said.