Amchem Mollem hits out at Govt for ambiguous responses on linear projects

MARGAO: The Amche Mollem Citizens Group (AMCG) hit out at the State government in light of the ambiguous answers to several questions related to linear projects during the recently concluded Assembly session.

The people’s initiative also expressed solidarity to the citizens and villagers who have been fighting against double-tracking and the Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott, for their court case that was disposed of in the High Court recently.

AMCG also referred to the citizen-led #AskYourMLA initiative wherein starred Legislative Assembly Questions (LAQ) that were put forth by MLAs who in turn received ambiguous answers from the State government. AMCG criticised the Goa government for continuously trying to pass on the buck.

One such legislative question was on ‘the public purpose behind the import of coal by private corporations. The government replied to this in the Assembly stating that such ‘details are not available with the Department of Environment and Climate Change’.

Furthermore, the government went on record to answer a LAQ on the use of coal in Goa and stated that the Goan industry consumes only 0.83 million metric tonnes (MMT) per annum of the 9.66 MMT imported by MPT from 2011-2022.

AMCG added that an unstarred LAQ seeking the quality of vegetables, goods, tourists and passenger trains was met by a disappointing reply that has come repeatedly that this data was under the purview of the central government. They pointed out that the Goa Government when asked to furnish details and a policy of double-tracking at the state level again put this on the Central government.

“As per the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India, forest and wildlife appear on the concurrent list, thus the State and Centre have equal power to take decisions on them,” said AMCG.

“It may be recalled that 20 lawyers wrote to the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court to highlight the lack of due process for the forest areas and the double-tracking permission given by the National Board for Wildlife was quashed by the Supreme Court,” AMCG.

AMCG said they hope that people’s rights and land will be secured through transparency.