PANJIM: While there is absolute silence on the part of the government on Herald’s exposes on the fraudulent granting of prior Environment Clearance to the Tiracol Golf course and luxury villas project, there is clinching evidence that the EC can be struck down due to clear procedural fraud.
Herald will expose in this story how the minutes of the meeting of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) deciding to grant EC to this project, were finalised on April 15, 2013, whereas the EC was accorded on April 12. How was project given clearance three days before the minutes of the meeting which granted this clearance was finalized?
Moreover, the three-year term of the SEIAA came to a close at the end of working hours of April 14, 2013. Therefore on the date the minutes were finalized (April 15, 2013) the SEIAA was not in existence. There are two clear grounds on the basis of which the EC can be cancelled following which the Consent to Establish accorded to Leading Hotels Pvt Ltd, the project developers, will also be null and void. Here are the details.
The project for which the entire village of Tiracol was taken over, through various alleged manipulations, was given an Environmental Clearance on April 12, 2013, by the State Environment Assessment Authority (SEIAA), “based on the recommendations of the State Expert Appraisal Committee. The letter granting the EC dated April 12, 2013 stated that the project was considered and project specific observations were considered in the 8th and 9th meeting of the SEIAA on April 1 and April 12, 2013. Herald has already proven one untruth that the meeting of April 1 did not have the Golf Course project in its agenda or in the minutes.
Now let’s look at the SEIAA meeting of April 12, where indeed the decision to grant prior EC was taken and the EC was granted on the very same day i.e. April 12, 2013, at electric speed, defying the speed limits of the movement of ordinary project files. This was no ordinary project and what follows nails this. The minutes of this meeting, (of the SEIAA) granting Environmental Clearance, were finalised and signed off on April 15, 2013, three days after the Environment Clearance was given. This effectively means that the EC was granted without the minutes of the decision approved.
There is another instance of foul play, and evidence of how this EC was pushed through in a whirlwind fashion. On April 15, 2013, when the minutes of the SEIAA were finalized and signed by Mr Jose Manuel Noronha, Chairman SEIAA, Dr Arvind Untawale, Member and Mr Levinson Martins as member secretary by virtue of being the Joint Secretary Science and technology department, the term of the first two had ended (Chairman and non official member).
The order of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (SO 853(E) appointing this SEIAA (as well as the State Expert Appraisal Committee SEAC) dated April 15, 2010, states that ‘The Chairman and Non official member of the authority shall hold a term of office of three years, from the date of publication of this notification’. Their term therefore ended at close of working hours of April 14, 2013.
Therefore, the April 15, 2013, confirmation of the minutes of the meeting of April 12, 2013, granting EC to Leading Hotels Pvt Ltd for the Golf course and villas project is clearly invalid since the term of Mr Noronha and Dr Untawale ended on April 14, 2013, which in effect ended the term of the SEIAA, since the Joint Secretary STE is the ex-officio Member Secretary of the SEIAA, through his position and not by name.
It is significant to note that after this clearly invalid Environmental Clearance given for a government backed project affecting the lands and living of the existing families of Tiracol village, the SIEAA and the SEAC were not even reconstituted till December 9, 2013, exactly a year ago.
The project involving a Golf Course 128 Resort Villas and 60 premium Resort Villas, stands on invalid Environment Clearance procedures. The defence against this is not merely procedural. It is reflective of a system that bent over backwards to push a project with crucial environmental issues that haven’t been addressed as Herald’s earlier reports have established.
