Kundapur: Women up in arms against illegal stone quarry
Silvester D’Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (VM)
Kundapur, Oct 3: Despite opposition from Bagwady villagers and relentless protests over the past three years to illegal stone quarrying, the work at the quary has continued.
On Wednesday October 2, women from the village decided to take matters into their hands and forced the labourers to stop working.
On Tuesday, around 40 labourers from other places were hired for work and attempt was made to blast the stones. The stone was drilled and explosives were filed in for the blast. On receiving information about this, as many as 50 women gathered together and stopped the work.
It is learnt that angered by the agitation launched by the women, the quarry officials and their employees behaved improperly but did not go against them. They left the place by evening.
On Wednesday, suspecting that the quarry workers would continue their work, around 150 women gathered near the quarry and also informed Kollur police. At around 5 pm, Kollur SI Devendra visited the spot. He registered the complaint from the women and assured to take strict action against the quarry.
The villagers have been time and again protesting against the quarry, which they say was set up after illegally leasing out land. Despite complaints to authorities, their pleas have gone unheard. However, the tahsildar had previously claimed that there was a high court stay order procured by people engaged in construction, and nothing could be done till the time of renewal of the lease.