MARGAO
Accusing the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government for taking Goemkars for a ride over double-tracking and coal projects, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai has said the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd in its submission before the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) that the double-tracking of the railway line from Hospet“Vasco-Castlerock-Kulem will be used for transportation of coal for thermal and power projects.
Sardesai said that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and his blatant lies have been clearly exposed in light of his previous comments regarding double-tracking and coal handling in Goa.
“The GFP had been first to point out the government’s hidden agenda behind the Sagarmala project in Goa was to benefit the coal lobby of Adani and Jindal,” he said, adding ‘now since the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) themselves have admitted before the Central Empowered Committee that double-tracking will be used to transport coal for thermal and power projects in Karnataka and that the project is part of the national Sagarmala project, going contrary to the CM’s public words’.
He further raised questions on the Chief Minister’s earlier statement that the coal transportation through Goa will be reduced to half in due course. Saying the Chief Minister is taking Goemkars for a royal ride over double tracking and coal, he said the “entire belt through which the track will pass from Vasco to Kulem will be heavily polluted with local communities and residents would start to face health issues, as the state has already seen the rise of lung related disease in and around Vasco region.”
Following the Zilla Panchayat poll results, the Goa Forward Chief Sardesai said that the results in favour of BJP doesn’t mean that the Chief Minister can just go ahead with the double-tracking and coal transportation in the State.
Terming the Chief Minister’s actions and decisions as Goa’s new “Coal-inization” putting Goa on a track towards a ‘future of surrender’ “ ahead of the state’s 60th anniversary if its Liberation Day, Sardesai also brought to the attention that the government led by former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was clearly opposed to the South Western Railway proposal of double tracking.
“Goa cannot be treated as a corridor, pointing out that Goa is small in its size by area, with the state just a quarter of a district of other larger states,” he added.
