TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Terming the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report as casual, shoddy and shallowly constructed document, Goans for Dabolim Only has demanded the postponement of the public hearing on Mopa airport scheduled on February 1 until an EIA is done with seriousness, reflecting the prevailing ground realities on the Mopa plateau and its surroundings.
GFDO Convenor Fr Eremito Rebello further demanded that to know the stand of the Environment Minister, Goa state Pollution Control Board and the Bio Diversity Board on the EIA report. “We have not heard anything from the Environment Minister and the GSPCB and the Bio-diversity Board on the EIA till date. We want to hear from them too on the EIA”, Fr Eremito said. “It was an appalling waste of public money, time and resources on the part of the Goa government to hold a public hearing on an EIA that even on cursory examination, is an unacceptable and shallowly constructed document, which does not reflect the ground realties”, he said.
The GFDO has raised several questions in a letter addressed to the Chief Secretary on the EIA report, demanding to know whether the EIA document has received an approval from the GSPCB and Goa Biodiversity Board, which was maintained by the public exchequer for protection of the state’s environment.
It has sought to know whether these bodies have certified that the Mopa plateau is not an eco-sensitive zone and whether the GSPCB and Bio-diversity Board have analysed the EIA and set its seal of approval that it has been diligently done with application of mind before squandering public resources and harassing the people to attend a public hearing that is obviously just a facade to push through an unviable airport that will have irreversible ramification for Goa and Goans.
GFDO member Rajendra Kakodkar said the government’s so-called “public hearing” seeking to brazenly give validity to a flimsy and shockingly slipshod, contradictory and outdated document done way back in 2011 is an obvious attempt at empty tokenism which is not acceptable to the people of Goa.
“We demand that the government show some respect to the climate, ecology and the people of Goa by treating the imposition of such a massive project on such a large tract of land in an eco-sensitive zone with the respect and care it merits,” Kakodkar said.
