PANAJI
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo has landed in a spot of trouble after the Bombay High Court at Goa on Wednesday made him a respondent in the Public Interest Litigation related to the felling of several trees at Siolim, some said to be more than a century old purportedly for road widening.
A bench comprising Justices Mahesh Sonak and Valmiki Menezes directed notice to be issued to Lobo asking him to also submit an affidavit at the next hearing fixed for April 2.
The decision came after the bench perused a video submitted by the petitioners in which Lobo is seen and heard claiming credit for the work of road widening and the felling of the trees at Siolim along a stretch of road between the HDFC Bank junction and the main road where 29 old trees were felled.
The PIL has been filed by Aaron Victor Fernandes and in the first hearing of the matter on March 13, the government departments were directed to take precaution so that not a single tree will be cut in Siolim.
Protests from locals in Siolim erupted after several old trees were cut down on March 3 without any notice or marking the trees.
Following the protests, the work was halted on March 5 but 29 trees, some said to be over a century old, had already been cut down.
The tree felling contractor, who is also a respondent in the PIL, had no license from the forest department to cut down the trees.
