Team Herald
MARGAO: Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Saturday pointed out that the authorities should give up the irresponsible and environment unfriendly development agenda and look for alternatives to develop infrastructure in wake of the Supreme Court order highlighting the diminishing forest cover in the country due to felling of trees for infrastructure.
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He said that while hearing a petition on the construction of bridge on the West Bengal border with Bangladesh, a three-member Bench of the Supreme Court noted “Green cover must be preserved. People are not willing to explore alternatives” and further noted that alternatives to cutting trees are available though they may be more expensive.
He said, “Goa too has suffered environmental degradation for infrastructure and cited the cases of bypasses for National Highway 17, National Highway 4 lane roads, Mopa Airport, Zuari Bridge and Atal Setu that caused environmental degradation.”
He also pointed out that builders are systematically cutting trees in the villages and cities for their projects and lamented that the Revenue Officers cannot take any action as the builders have done their work by paying heavy bribes to the government officials.
While asserting that it is everybody’s duty to save Goa’s pristine natural beauty Aleixo appealed to the Chief Minister to give Goans relief in the way he did by withdrawing the notification classifying villages as urban areas and Section 144 that was imposed over North Goa.
