State told to probe into Collem mine

State told to probe into Collem mine

HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, MAY 15 — The Central Empowerment Committee of the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the State Government to probe into the Prafulla Hede mines at Collem, which is allegedly operating on forest land.
The CEC today ordered a probe and in a letter to the Chief Secretary asked the State Government to respond in the matter. It has asked the Government to find whether the mine was operating in violation of forest conservation rules.
A second letter has been made to the Chief Conservator of Forests to know how Prafulla Hede mine had encroached upon 1,000 sq m of forestland.
Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation had filed an urgent petition in the apex court against the mine.
On May 8, a team of CNN-IBN, led by its environmental editor Bahar Dutt and Alvares, had to face the wrath of the mine’s manager and his staff when they had gone to shoot the illegal mining operation.
A crowd that gathered around the team that day tried to snatch the camera, but luckily it managed to come of the place under police protection and save the tape, which had the footage of the illegal mining.
The footage was shown on CNN-IBN today and a repeat telecast of the same is scheduled on Friday morning.

VIDEO SHOWING COMPLETE VIOLATION CAUGHT BY CNN IBN