MARGAO
Terming the Major Port Authorities Bill as an attack on the sovereignty of Goa as a State, a team under the banner of Citizens for Democracy, led by former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes met with the Ports Minister Michael Lobo, the Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, Goa Forward Leader Vijai Sardesai and several other MLAs and handed over a letter demanding discussion in the assembly on what was termed as grave existential crisis set to engulf Goans.
Addressing the media, Gomes said that past conduct showed Goa government’s complicity in toeing the line dictated by the Centre on several issues.
He said that the State was getting pushed into subordination to agencies created by the Centre, raising questions about the State’s sovereignty under the Constitution of India.
The letter states that Goa government has been ignoring the voice of the people and, without any resistance, falling in line with what the government at the Centre wishes to do. “Take the case of destruction of ecologically sensitive forests in the Mollem national park or the wildlife sanctuaries that are habitat of the Indian Tiger which is protected or the forced-upon double tracking or the handing over of the age old rivers in the State to the Centre on a platter or the flawed Coastal Zone Management Plans. And now to top it all is the Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020, which seeks to almost do away with the State’s sovereignty” states the letter.
It further states that the Major Port Authorities Bill would pose a serious challenge to the existence of Goa as the 25th State in the Union and called upon the Goa government to address the challenges posed rather than being a mute spectator.
“Do you know that the revised CZMPs are now showing what are called ‘port limits’? And how can the depiction of ‘port limits’ on CZMPs be seen as meeting the objectives of the CZMPs which are mainly to protect the interests of indigenous communities? To put it simply, showing ‘port limits’ in CZMP’s is in furtherance of the objectives of The Major Port Authorities Bill under which the power and authority of a duly elected State Government will be subordinated to a ‘Board’ constituted by the Central Government under The Major Port Authorities Act, 2020. Much Control of what happens at the foothills of the Western Ghats to the Arabian Sea within the territory of Goa will be exercised by a mere ‘Board’, ” states the letter signed by Gomes among others.
Gomes recalled that former chief minister late Manohar Parrikar had often spoken against the expansionist designs of the Mormugao Port which is a Major Port. He said that the Port then did not have much power to take risks of antagonising the state government whereas now The Major Port Authorities Bill was set to reduce the status of the state of Goa into a centrally administered UT wherein the Board so appointed will be presiding over the destiny of the people without any accountability to the people.
Pointing to the definitions of the terms ‘Board’, ‘Port Limits’, ‘Major Port Approaches’ and the draconian provisions of Section 22(3), Section 25 and Section 26 of the bill, Gomes said that an appointed ‘Board’ will snatch the jurisdiction of the state government as well the local bodies such as the Panchayats and the Municipalities and people who may fight for rights may be sent to jail. Also present were Ramiro Mascarenhas, Sidharth Karapurkar, Edwin Vaz and Pradeep Padgaonkar.
