Team Herald
MARGAO: Goa Forward Party (GFP) President Vijai Sardesai on Thursday said that Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and his blatant lies have been exposed in the light of his previous comments regarding double-tracking and coal handling in Goa.
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It may be recalled that in a submission before the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC), the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) had admitted that the double-tracking of the railway line from Hospet-Vasco-Castlerock-Kulem will be used for transportation of coal for thermal and power projects.
Reacting to the above, Sardesai said, “The GFP had been first to point out the government’s hidden agenda behind the Sagarmala Project in Goa was to benefit the coal lobby of Adani and Jindal.”
“Now since the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has admitted before the CEC that rail double-tracking will be used to transport coal for thermal and power projects in Karnataka and that the project is part of the national Sagarmala Project, go contrary to the Chief Minister’s public words,” the GFP chief asserted.
Sardesai raised questions over Sawant’s earlier statement that coal transportation through Goa will be reduced to half in due course. “The Chief Minister is taking Goenkars for a royal ride over rail double-tracking and coal,” he alleged.
“The entire belt through which the track will pass from Vasco to Kulem will be heavily polluted as the local communities and residents would face health issues, as the State has already witnessed the rise in lung-related disease in and around Vasco region,” he claimed
On the Zilla Parishad elections results, the Goa Forward Party chief Sardesai said, “Results in favour of BJP doesn’t mean that Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant can just go ahead with the rail double-tracking and coal transportation in the State.”
Sardesai termed the Chief Minister’s actions and decisions as Goa’s new “Coal-inisation” putting Goa on a track towards a “future of surrender” – ahead of the State’s 60th Liberation Day anniversary.
The GFP president said the government-led by former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was clearly opposed to the South Western Railway proposal of rail double-tracking.
Sardesai said, “Goa cannot be treated as a corridor, pointing out that Goa is small in its size by area, with the State just a quarter of a district of other larger States.”
In a letter to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind, Sardesai called upon him to help Goans to #SaveGoaNow and highlighted the issues Goa continues to face.
With regards to rail double-tracking, Sardesai said, “Goans today are unified in their voice to Save Mollem, our unique biodiversity hotspot from the consequential decision of the government to permit ‘double tracking’ through our sacred forests.”
“The consequential decision of the government to permit rail ‘double tracking’ would harm numerous rural communities and villages of Goa stand to be evicted and destructed all for the sake of commercial profit and greed,” he added.
