Goa village wins compensation for fields scarred by mining
landmark is a much abused word when it comes to legal copy. But the Bombay High Court's recent order that six mining companies would have to compensate farmers in north Goa for rendering their agricultural fields unfit for cultivation through unchecked mining activities surely deserves this adjective. Mining has long been a problem in the hinterlands of the state, far from the national and international scrutiny that the influx of tourists into the coastal areas might conceivably provoke. The problem may have been exacerbated by the rising demand for various minerals in the international market, led, of course, by China's voracious industrialising drive. But it's been around for longer than that