VASCO: Referring to the ongoing agitation against coal where gram sabhas across Goa are taking resolutions against coal, Panchayat Minister and Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho on Monday claimed that such resolutions are passed merely because the people are not having proper understanding about the issue.
“There are two aspects. First the people have not understood the whole issue in its totality and secondly there are people with vested interest and want to ruin the economic progress of Goa because they believe disruption as their mantra. At the panchayats such resolutions are passed as they are not having proper understanding about the whole issue. Also it is a trend in Goa where gram sabhas go with the tide. Somehow issues are sought to be made out of non-issues and because one panchayat takes such resolution the others follow. In the gram sabhas few people express their voice together and a resolution is passed. This is what has been happening. If you go by the decision of the gram sabhas totally then I don’t think any progress can ever take place in Goa and we may have to go back to the stone age. Is that what we want,” he questioned.
Godinho said, “On the one side we have people clamouring for jobs to be created for locals as they don’t want to go outside Goa and on the other side, any economic activity happening, activist groups come forward to stop the same. It is a fact that Goans are more conscious with regards to pollution, but it is not to say that the same should impact normal development. People have to distinguish between genuine concerns as regards to coal pollution and what is in the interest of Goa and the government is here to protect the environment, which is its top priority,”
