PANAJI
The State government is out to sell Goa to the crony club of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the remaining seven months and hence wants to suppress the voice of the people who are trying to protect the identity of Goa by holding public hearings on CZMP under the ambit of curfew and NSA and once again pushing Goans in the death trap of Covid, State Congress President Girish Chodankar alleged.
Chodankar who addressed a press conference at Congress House on Monday flanked by spokesperson Tulio De Souza and Youth Congress Secretary Archit Naik, condemned Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for being a mute spectator even as the demand of citizens to postpone the CZMP public hearings scheduled on July 8 at open-air venues was growing.
"We are just four days away and there are no signs from the government to ensure participation and freedom of speech of all the participants in the said hearings is protected," he said.
The chief minister has once again proved to be clueless and has no control whatsoever over neither his Ministers nor his departments, he alleged, adding that he seems uninterested in protecting lives even after 3000-plus deaths.
"The scheduled public hearing has violated all procedures with restrictions imposed on each speaker to speak only for 15 minutes. This government which thinks that it is above law has dishonoured the directions given by the NGT which the NGO’s had approached due to gross violations in the public hearings process held earlier in March," Chodankar said.
He alleged that it is now evident that the government is in a hurry to complete the CZMP without following the procedures and bypassing the people’s genuine concerns.
"The government's sole intention is to implement the new CRZ Notification 2019 which will reduce NDZ to 50 metres so that 105 km of coastline is sold to crony friends Adani and Jindal through Sagarmala project," Chodankar alleged.
He pledged that Congress will stand with the people and ensure that the government is forced to postpone the hearings.
