the goan I network
PANAJI
The Opposition Congress on Wednesday upped its attack against the BJP-led coalition government, now making the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar himself the target of its charges of corruption and nepotism.
Chairman of the party’s legal cell and former Advocate General Carlos Alvares-Fereira, told a press conference in a city hotel, that the Chief Minister’s son Abhijat has undertaken constructions in the nearly 90-lakh square metres of land he owns at Netravali, in gross violation of environmental laws.
Alvares-Ferreira said, a public interest litigation in this regard had already been filed before the Bombay High Court on Monday by the local Sanguem deputy sarpanch Abhijit Desai.
The PIL, he said, puts on record that the land, over which a storm was raised in 2013 when the mutation process in favour of Parrikar’s son was executed within a day in 2013, falls within the Netravalli Wildlife Sanctuary.
Two successive BJP-led governments have been instrumental in making amendments to the TCP and the Land Revenue Code (LRC) Acts, allowing Abhijat to construct in the area, potentially causing damage to the surrounding wildlife sanctuary, Adv Alvares-Ferreira said.
“We have filed a PIL on Monday after our efforts to activate the Forest Department and other government agencies to act against the illegalities got no support,” Alvares-Ferreira said, adding that they even knocked the doors of the panchayat and the Central Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) with little success.
“They did not take cognisance of our complaints because the complaint is against Abhijat Parrikar,” said Alvares-Ferreira, showing pictures of the ‘destruction’ to forest cover.
He also alleged that the controversial Investment Promotion Board (IPB) formed in 2013 through an Act, was mainly done to benefit Abhijat.
He further said that in the name of a company called M/s Hideaway Hospitality, the area was developed without following any of the norms of the State level Eco-sensitive Zone Monitoring Committee (SESZMC) which is mandated to monitor development in eco-sensitive zones (ESZ).
According to SESZMC rules, no approvals can be granted for construction in ESZs until a zonal master plan has been prepared.
However, both Forest Department and the SESZMC are on record to say that there is no zonal masterplan submitted to them, said Ferreira.
Yet, constructions which do not adhere to norms of ESZs have come up on the land in question, he explained showing photographic evidence.
The ESZ notification only permits eco-tourism structures (like tents), tree houses and similar structures.
Meanwhile, Congress president Girish Chodankar said, the government adopted Netravalli in 2013 under the Central government Atal Adarsh Gram Vikas Yojana scheme specifically for the purpose of benefiting the private commercial plans of Abhijat.
Former CM Pratapsingh Rane said, “After protecting our forests for so many years, Goans should not tolerate this. It is a violation of the Forest Conservation Act.”
Others present at the press conference included Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and legislators Nilkanth Halarnkar, Reginaldo Lourenco, Clafasio Dias and Francis Silveira, besides AICC Goa in-charge Dr Chella Kumar.
‘Case against Pratima to distract from Abhijat’s illegal activities’
Panjim: The Congress on Wednesday said that the cases slapped on Mahila Congress Chief Pratima Coutinho as well as Netravalli deputy sarpanch Abhijit Desai have been slapped so as to deter them from interfering in any case related to Abhijat Parrikar, son of Manohar Parrikar.
Both Coutinho and Desai have been targeted after they supported a girl in the area who was allegedly molested by a driver working on the illegal project currently being undertaken by Abhijat in an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) in Sanguem. The incident took place in July.
A case has been slapped against Coutinho under Section 34 of the IPC, Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act 2012 and Section 8 (2) of the Goa Children’s Act. Coutinho has been accused for revealing the identity of the victim girl through circulation of photos that don’t feature the victim girl, but feature her mother and Mahila Congress workers who visited the girl in July. However, Coutinho claims that she in no way revealed the identity of the victim girl, and met her in the privacy of her home, where no media persons were present.
GPCC president Girish Chodankar said on Tuesday that cases were filed against Coutinho and Desai to distract from the alleged illegal construction being carried out by Abhijat in the same area the girl was molested. “They are doing this to suppress anyone from speaking out against them. But we will fight these false charges,” he said.
The Congress had earlier produced several documents under RTI implicating Abhijat in the destruction of forest area in Netravalli with the aid of several amendments being made to laws in the past five years.
