Goa: Fearing for students’ safety, councillor halts mining trucks

QUEPEM: Alleging that mining companies had not kept their promise of stopping movement of iron ore trucks during the SSC exams and stating that students’ safety was at stake, councillor of Quepem Municipal Council (QMC) Manuel Colaco stopped the ore-laden trucks at Quepem on Saturday.
The five-time chairperson stopped the loaded trucks near the cemetery along the Quepem-Cavrem road. QMC chairperson Dayesh Naik and councillor Raul Pereira joined him later. Two SSC examination sub-centres are located at Quepem town., and one at Tilamoll. The trucks were headed to Curchorem, which has four examination sub-centres. “Due to continuous movement of trucks we face a risky and difficult situation in taking our children to the centre at Curchorem,” a parent from Molcornem, Marcus Sequeira said.The Holy Cross Institute, the main centre in Quepem town, is located 40m from the main road and the noise of speeding trucks disturbs the students.
Many parents from Ambaulim and far off places told TOI that the route to the examination centres is unsafe for their children due to the heavy truck movement. “There is also no public transport,” one parent said.
Soon after blocking the trucks at Quepem , Colaco rang deputy collector Rohit Kadam and asked him to issue a written order to the mine owners to stop ore transportation from morning till 2pm, during the SSC exams. Kadam said that he will direct the mines’ representatives to stop the transportation during exams as they agreed by them during the meeting chaired by him on May 12.