Goa: Land Mines

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The Chief Minister of Goa and Minister of Mines for 11 years, Digambar Kamat is under fire on allegations that he hasn't acted against mining violations and for favoring his politician friends and colleagues.

With an eye at the upcoming Assembly elections, Leader of the Opposition, Manohar Parrikar, is in a combative mood. He claims his Political Accounts Committee report will blow the lid off the government's hand in illegal mining.

Claude Alvares of the Goa Foundation, at his office in Mapusa. The shelves behind Alvares are filled with ongoing and past court cases against many environmental violations, mining being the biggest at the moment.

A high school teacher from the mining town of Bicholem in North Goa, Ramesh Gauns became an anti-illegal mining activist. Standing at the bank of the Assnora river, he shows us a Sesa Goa mine which he claims was given clearances despite obvious violations.

Brother of the influential MLA Churchill Alemao, Minister for Urban Development, Joaquim Alemao claims to be a mere contractor who lends out heavy equipment to miners.

The Churchill brothers' football club at an early morning practice session. Most football clubs of the state are owned by mining companies, like Salgaocar SC and Dempos SC.

Last month, in an accident in the monsoon, a water body at a Sesa Goa swept into the fields of the village of Mulgaon in Bicholim taluka, destroying the paddy cultivation of the area, alleges activist Ramesh Gauns.

A mine not far from the edge of the Salaulim Dam which supplies water to south Goa.

The abandoned Ashnidungar Iron ore mine right in the middle of the Colomba forest area in south Goa, owned by the powerful MLA Anil Salgaocar. Protests by local activists forced it to shut down.

Trucks used to carry ore have become the flashpoint of debate over the advantages of mining. Many Goans have found employment as drivers and owners, while others who oppose mining say it is just a ploy by the companies for local support.

On the edge of Sirigao villlage in Bicholim, we came upon this sight: a cricket match in progress in the crimson glow of an abandoned mining pit.