MARGAO: Greens from Salcete along with the South Goa advocates have lauded the High Court for taking suo motu cognisance of the MoEF and CC order transferring jurisdiction over Goa to the Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal at Delhi. The environmentalists and lawyers have also hailed the High Court directive that no Goa-related files will be transferred to the Delhi bench based on the notification till further orders.
Several Salcete activists by fighting cases at NGT have stopped the destruction of sand dunes and green covers across Salcete and South Goa too. Hurt by the move of the MoEF, the activists have lambasted the attitude of the government for purposefully making it difficult for them (activists).
Adv Aires Passanha of Cavelossim Civic and Consumer Forum has said that this attempt of Government is to silence the voices of the activists speaking against the destruction by it (government). This is going to land people in trouble as it is practically impossible for Goans to go to Delhi for NGT cases”.
When asked whether the state should have separate NGT, he said, “In fact people were happy with the Pune bench as there was less interference from politicians from Goa which gave real justice to our efforts. Having it in Goa will further jeopardise the efforts of the green brigade”.
Jose Marie Miranda, One of the petitioners in the Mopa Airport case said, “This decision has been taken to purposefully trouble the people, who are filing cases against the environmental destruction. The fact that Pune bench is handling 40 per cent of cases from Goa itself shows how much environmental violations Goa is facing now,” said Miranda.
He said, “Having a separate NGT for Goa is justified looking at the number of cases from Goa the Pune bench is currently handling.”
Adv Anacleto Viegas, who is appearing in a case related to shacks in Pune said, “Why are you putting a block in the delivery of justice to the aggrieved people. Justice has to be delivered at the doorsteps of the people”.
“We can see our advocates practicing there in Pune and it can be termed as a move to deliberately hide the arbitrary decisions and conversions of green covers in the state of Goa,” said Anacleto.
