Highly placed sources confirmed that the Governor, last week, granted consent to the Bill and a notification will be issued soon. “The bill was sent to the Governor last week. The Bill was with the Law Department for nearly 45 days, and they had sought additional information from the Forest Department on the Bill,”
sources said.
In January the Legislative Assembly had passed the Bill, deleting the coconut tree from the purview of “trees”.
This has been strongly opposed by politicians and others. Social activists, environment lovers and others had petitioned the Governor requesting her not to grant consent to the Bill.
A massive ‘Maad Yatra’, opposing the declassification of the coconut tree was organised in North and South Goa by Independent MLAs Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte and others.
Congress has also announced it will introduce a ‘Goa Protection of Coconut Trees Bill 2016’ demanding that the coconut tree be declared as ‘State Tree’ during the Budget Session of the Assembly beginning on March 14.
