Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has issued notice to the government in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the location of the IT Park in Chimbel.
The PIL filed by the Chimbel Gram Seva Kala Ani Sunskrutik Manch, together with Goa Foundation has sought that government’s decision to set up IT park in the village be quashed and set aside.
The petitioners alleged that the park activity initiated by Infotech and the Department of Information Technology sporadically since September 2018 has no permissions from the statutory authorities including mandatory environment clearance under the EIA notification of September 14, 2006.
The challenge in the PIL is laid out on various grounds, but the primary issue deals with the proposed location of the IT Park which, as per official documents and as per ground reality, fall on a plot (Survey.No.40/1) identified as forest by the Karapurkar Expert Committee.
“The plot in question, being identified as forest, needs an order for diversion from forest to non-forestry purposes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Admittedly, this has not been obtained. Further, there is an interim order of the Supreme Court of India dated February 4, 2015 which disallows NOCs for development of such tracts of forest. To bypass these restrictions, efforts are being made to destroy or weaken the forest through deliberate acts of arson and use of bulldozers on several occasions during the past one year,” Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation said.
The petitioners are also concerned that the project will be a serious threat to a major heritage wetland, the Chimbel Lake, which the forest feeds and which in turn provides water (drinking and irrigation) to Chimbel villagers.
The petitioners have urged the court to direct the Town & Country Planning Department to demarcate the land use of Survey Number 40/1 as forest in the development plan, to notify the Chimbel forest as a Reserve Forest and to expeditiously process the proposal to declare the Chimbel Lake as a wetland.
