PANJIM: The campaign to save Goa from incessant mining has now got a global linkage with almost 40 Goan overseas associations joining hands against mining activity at the cost of environment.

The associations representing the Goan Diaspora in Australia, Canada, UK, Middle East, East Africa and Portugal have come under one umbrella called Save Goa Campaign UK, which on Friday submitted a petition to Goa Governor K Sankaranarayanan’s office and to Chief Minister Digamber Kamat.

The Mineral Foundation of Goa (MFG) in coordination with Sanquelim Municipal Council (SMC) has initiated the ‘Nirmal Gram’ project on solid waste management at the community level in Virdi.

As part of the project, awareness programme was organized in Virdi during the traditional Kalotsav (Jatra) of Shri Mahadev Devasthan on Saturday.
The event was used as a platform to reach out to the entire village and beyond.

PANJIM: In what could bring in a relief for mining industry in Goa, Union Mines ministry on Friday said that they are not in favour of Finance ministry’s decision to increase export duty on the low grade iron ore from the country.

“Mines ministry is not favourably inclined towards increase in the export duty, especially in case of low grade ore, which is not consumed by steel industry” A K Srivastava, Additional Secretary, ministry of mines, told reporters on the sidelines of two day conference on ‘Mining for sustainability’ organized by Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI).

PANJIM: One of the State’s oldest mining company, Damodar Mangalji and Company Limited (DMC), is likely to come under the scanner of the Mines department, again, for its move to revive operations at a mine at Pissurlem, almost after a decade.

In a complaint before state authorities, a local from Amona Khemlo Sawant has said that the ripper is still working at the mine named as ‘Band Doncol’ bearing TC number 2/Fe/71.

PANJIM:Goa Foundation (GF) has claimed, that even as Shah Commission officials were enquiring into the illegal mining, almost half of state’s ore that left the shores during last financial year was illegally extracted.

GF, which has filed series of petitions before High Court on illegal mining has stated that almost 43 percent of the ore exported from Goa during the financial year 2010-11was illegally extracted violating environmental norms.

The huge resentment against the Regional Plan and the spectre of illegal mining have angered the people against the congress.

Does the party have any answers? Shirodkar : If you go to see, both the issues have not raised its head for the last one month. When it comes to mining, the Central government has already taken a decision not to ban iron ore export while issuing directions to curb illegalities.

In an interesting development, Ahmedabad- based waste management expert P U Asnani has recommended capping of the Sonsodo waste dumping site in view of the presence of heavy metals in the waste.

PONDA: Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) officials on Monday inspected the lake at Arla-Keri, Ponda and collected water samples for tests.

The team, comprising Sanjay Kankonkar (scientific assistant), Ashely Pereira (engineering assistant) and Rema Kanlekar (junior laboratory assistant), said a report on the water samples would be available after 15 days.

The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has directed the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) to stop dumping of unsegregated waste at Assagao Plateau and to initiate various measures to tackle gar

PANJIM: Targeting the Goa government over failure to implement rule 45 of the Mineral Conservation and Development (MCDR) Rules, 1988, the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has said that in the absence