VASCO: The members of Goa Against Coal (GAC) on Tuesday demanded that the government scrap the proposed development of Vasco bay project in toto and Khariwado beach be nourished and restored to its original form.
GAC said that attempts are being made to defraud the fisher folk of Vasco bay by creating a fraudulent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the proposed development of Vasco bay, which, it said, “actually conceals the devious motives to displace the fisher folk community eventually from Vasco bay.”
Addressing a press conference in Vasco, GAC member and General Secretary of Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) Olencio Simoes claimed, “We were shocked to read MPT’s Final Report entitled ‘Development of Business Plan for MPT’, which clearly states (on page 6-51) that the social impact of development of Vasco site would be ‘fishing fleet to be relocated’. Therefore, it is clear that MPT has planned to systematically displace the fisher folk over 3 or 4 phases; the current MOU being the first phase.”
Simoes alleged that with proposed Vasco bay development plan, the MPT is planning to expands its coal handling in future and to capture the entire Vasco bay as it plans to build four additional berths at Vasco bay by adding additional facilities of liquid bulk, cargo vessel, coal, for naval etc.
“It is only with this intention that MPT is trying to build narrow vertical finger pier, with berths on both sides by dividing the beach and in future additional finger pier berths will be built on the east side by reclaiming the land and thus the area used currently by fishermen will be displaced to further east that is towards Chicalim bay thus completely displacing the fishing fleet at Vasco bay,” he said.
