MARGAO: Congress candidate in South Goa Francisco Sardinha condemned Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s assurance to GMR officials that he will personally review the process to re-issue the environment clearances given to the Mopa airport and urged the chief minister not to work for GMR.
“The CM must not forget that his government was a respondent in the case before the Supreme Court and his government tried to mislead the EAC committee and the courts about the number of trees and details of the wild-life in the plateau”, said Sardinha.
“It is the BJP government that conducted the environment impact assessment study and it is the BJP government that applied for the EC. Therefore, the Chief Minister has to first apologise to the people of Goa, to the poor locals whose houses were illegally demolished, the farmers who lost their livelihood, the NGT and the Supreme Court, for manipulating the study and giving false information”, he said.
Sardinha condemned the step motherly treatment accorded by BJP government to the Dabolim Airport. “Unfortunately when people get off at Dabolim the first thing they see are gambling advertisements, broken toilets and interiors, non-functional multi-storeyed parking, incomplete grade separators and dusty parking areas for taxis. The deadline for completing grade separators was 2015. Why is it taking 6 years to complete them?”, he questioned. He demanded that the BJP government focus on the government-owned Dabolim Airport which will have a capacity of 1.2 Crore passenger per year by 2021, which according to the governments own record is sufficient till 2035.
“We never wanted to give 90 lakh sq meters virtually free of cost to a private company. We never wanted to give 15 lakh sqmts for a casino hub. The financial appraisal report done by BJP says the project won’t be profitable. In the hands of BJP, this project has become a scam”, he said while pointing out that Mopa airport was planned as a revenue earner.
Sardinha demanded that the entire project has to be reviewed by the CAG and an independent auditor. “We need a study on the tourism carrying capacity of Goa and review the Mopa airport project to see if it is viable. After collecting all the facts, it is up to the people of Goa to decide whether we need another airport or not. I will stand by whatever the people decide”, he said
