MARGAO
It was 10.30 am on Friday -- the time when anti-coal activists Abhijit Prabhudesai and Sandesh Talekar were summoned to the
Maina-Curtorim police station housed at the Margao police headquarters for an inquiry into the Chandor midnight protest.
Even before the Abhijit and Sandesh could make their presence felt before the investigation officer, hundreds of protesters took their positions outside the main road with a clear purpose – not for a confrontation with the men-in-uniform, but send a clear signal that they too are ready to face arrest along with Abhijit and Sandesh.
In fact, if the government and the police higher-ups thought that summoning the activists would cow them down from continuing the ongoing agitation, they appeared sadly mistaken. Perhaps for the first time in the ongoing agitation, cries of “arrest me too” and “enough is enough” reverberated on the road outside the police district headquarters as children joined their elders in the “arrest me too” campaign in the ongoing agitation.
Days after Capt Viriato Fernandes of Goencho Ekvott thundered that people are ready to face police bullets and will not be cowed down by pressure tactics of the men-in-uniform, hundreds of protesters joined the “arrest me too” campaign outside the police station.
Shouts of “arrest me too” rent the air outside the police station even as Abhijit and Sandesh were holed up inside the Maina-Curtorim police station for an inquiry under section 41(A) of the Cr PC. In fact, “arrest me too” shouts repeatedly rent the air as the protesters dared the government and the police to arrest them for participating in the Chandor midnight vigil, and the protests at Sao Jose de Areal, Davorlim and Arossim.
And, they offered to get arrested for raising their objections to the projects such as coal transportation, power transmission lines, MPT coal handling, double-tracking etc, vowing not to rest till the ongoing agitation is taken to its logical conclusion.
The protesters took potshots at the DGP for batting for the projects, with activists saying the police should do its duty and allow the protesters to agitate peacefully.
Young children, with placards of “arrest me too” and “enough is enough” stood shoulder to shoulder with the elders as they demanded scrapping of the controversial projects.
Said Goencho Ekvott Convenor Creson Antao: “The people had done the midnight vigil at Chandor during the government’s vigilance week. We fail to understand why FIR is registered against the people and not against the MLAs and ex-MLAs who participated in the vigil. We are not protesters, but protectors of Goa.”
Saying that the anti-coal movement is being led by the youth of Goa, Creson said like the Berlin wall the Goan youth will pull down the plans to make Goa a coal hub.
Goencho Ekvott Co-convenor Capt Viriato Fernandes thanked the government for bringing the people on the roads and join the revolution. “The government has awakened the Goans, who will crush all plans to make Goa a coal hub,” he asserted.
Capt Viriato warned that the government has made the biggest mistake by bringing the people on the roads.
“We have strategized and the strategy will be rolled out one by one. We have placed our demands in a peaceful manner,” he said.
