PANAJI
"Casinos will come and go. They are replaceable. Our beaches are not. The most terrible judgment of all is the judgment of history, and history will judge us all not by the way we care for things we can replace, but how we protect the things we cannot. Therefore, our beaches and rivers first; casinos later," the interim directions issued on Monday and made available on Tuesday read.
"We propose now to monitor the progress of the vessel's removal. List the matter high on the supplementary board on 5th September 2017. If necessary, we will take up the hearing every Tuesday, high on board," the judgement reads.
"The ship was proposed as a floating or offshore casino. Today it is a wreck. There is a real and present danger now of damage to this beach, and others down the coast. The vessel is christened, somewhat incongruously or ironically, MV Lucky Seven. That is as untrue of the vessel as it is of the city and Miramar beach," the court judgement eloquently says recalling the grounding of the MV River Princess which happened not too long ago.
"Not yet faded from public memory is the incident of the MV River Princess at Calangute, and what followed as damage to that beach and shoreline, plus, of course, the ultimate costs of that vessel's removal. We will not permit a repetition here," the court said.
"We make it clear that we will not make the mistake of addressing ourselves to the reliefs sought by the petitioner (Golden Globe Hotels, who sought a court direction to the government to give them a licence) until and unless the vessel in question is completely removed from the Miramar Beach in Panaji and its environs," the court said.
"We are not concerned how this is done, so long as there is no environmental damage," the order reads.
The HC said it would hold Golden Globe Hotels responsible for the slightest environmental damage and loss caused to either Miramar Beach, the city of Panaji or any of the beaches downstream such as Caranzalem.
"We will not accept any of these as excuses, or any other excuse about ‘inclement weather' The monsoons and tidal conditions at this time of year can have come as no surprise to anyone. MV Lucky Seven ran aground after the monsoons began. She will leave before the monsoons end," the HC said.
