Team Herald
MARGAO: Goans for Dabolim Only (GFDO) has strongly disagreed with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s justification that Goa government does not having a legal set up in Pune to defend cases filed against it in National Green Tribunal (NGT), Pune is the main reason for placing Goa under Delhi.
The GFDO says that in fact, if that is the case, the Goa government must stop indulging in illegalities, and direct or indirect support to them, which were contrary to the environmental norms and endanger Goa and Goans.
“It is these contraventions that have prompted activists and NGOs to file so many cases in NGT, Pune, that today most cases are from Goa. Further, having suffered severe setbacks at NGT, Pune in various cases, the Goa government is now trying the easy way out to make it difficult for petitioners to travel to Delhi and discourage others from filing cases in the national capital. This is a shameful and undemocratic attitude that even the High Court had to take suo motu notice of,” GFDO pointed out.
It is a well-known fact that the governments, both in Delhi and Goa are fast-tracking the construction of Mopa airport, despite two cases pending before the NGT in Pune.
GFDO strongly feels, therefore, that the governments were keen in removing obstacles which could come in their way of quick execution of the project.
It also suspects that the shifting of the cases to Delhi has been deliberately done to keep the anti-Mopa petitioners out of reach of the Tribunal.
However, GFDO reposes full trust in the courts, which are looking into the cases presently before them.
