PANJIM: Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised a workers rally from Panjim Kadamba Bus Terminus which culminated in a public meeting at Azad Maidan, to press for their demand to nationalise mining in the State and its takeover by proposed Goa Mineral Development Corporation. The rally was addressed by Tapan Sen General Secretary of the National Unit of the CPI-M and Member of Parliament Tapan Sen as well as Thalmann Pereira, the state general secretary, Dr Vivek Monteiro and others. The rally submitted a memorandum of their demands to Collector, North Goa. Topping their list of demands is the setting up of a Goa Mineral Development Corporation on the lines of the National Mineral Development Corporation to takeover the mines and the resumption of legal mining with restrictions to ensure that the livelihoods of the mining dependent people is not threatened. Their demands also included the compensation for loss of crops to peasants and rehabilitation of fields that have been affected by siltation and seepage of mining rejects, cleaning up of water source which are clogged by mining rejects and crucially the recovery of “huge foreign exchange earned and stashed in foreign banks by mining companies.” They have also called for a ban on export of ore and that it should rather be consumed domestically for steel production and industrial growth and advancement.