Team Herald
MARGAO: Congress MLA Clafasio Dias, clarifying that the crusher belonging to his wife is about 50 mts away from the Selaulim Canal, said Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao is hitting out at him only because he had supported the people of Cuncolim in their demand not to permit any other fish meal plant in their locality.
Briefing media persons at the site of the crusher belonging to his wife, he said it has been functioning for the last about 15 years and wondered why Churchill’s brother Joaquim Alemao did not object to it when he was not only an MLA representing Cuncolim constituency but also a minister in the government.
Clafasio said that he joined the people demanding that the NOC given by the council to Viva Marine Impex be withdrawn.
Clafasio recalled that on May 9, following a call from some people of Cuncolim, he visited the Cuncolim Municipal Council and joined the people demanding that the NOC given by the council to Viva Marine Impex to set up another fish meal plant in Cuncolim Industrial Estate be withdrawn.
“The Chairperson Polita Carneiro admitted that she was pressurised to give the NOC and promised to revoke the same,” Clafasio said adding that Churchill had called him then and told him that he has an interest in the fish meal plant and not to act against it.
However, the NOC was withdrawn that evening and based on that the Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board vide a letter dated June 12, 2018 informed Mohamed Saud who had applied for setting up the plant under the name Viva Marine Impex that his application for allotment of a plot and approval to set up a fish meal plant in Cuncolim Industrial was rejected.
In a letter dated July 5, 2018, Churchill appealed to the chief minister to consider the fish meal plant and also demanded that it be allowed during the discussion in the assembly, Clafasio pointed out. “Only because I objected to it in the Assembly he has hit out at me over the crusher belonging to my wife,” he said.
Clafasio revealed that former Sarpanch of Paroda Gabriel Fernandes who has filed the case against the crusher was the same person who had given the NOC for the crusher when he was the sarpanch. “In fact the canal is constructed through my property and this matter will be decided by the court,” he said.
“This is nothing but a political game being played by Churchill to promote his nephew Yuri who is seeking to contest from Cuncolim at the next elections,” said Clafasio.
