AGENCIES|PANAJI

Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF), an umbrella body of people dependent on Goa’s now-defunct mining sector, has demanded that those who had lost their livelihoods due to a ban on iron ore extraction should be given a monthly compensation of Rs 25,000.

Goa Mining People’s Front chief Puti Gaonkar said that this compensation amount should be given before Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, which are about to start from September 13, failing which the outfit would hold protests in Delhi.

“Our demand is specific. We expect the state government to pay Rs 25,000 every month to those who had lost their livelihood due to the mining ban till the sector resumes,” Gaonkar said.

He said that the GMPF would hold protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar if the state government failed to act on this demand since it was a matter of three lakh people’s survival.

The state mining sector came to standstill in March after the Supreme Court, in an order dated February 7 this year, quashed 88 mining leases and banned the extraction of iron ore.