PANAJI
Former Minister and current Calangute MLA, Michael Lobo on Friday visited the Forest Department where officials recorded his statement in the matter of the illegal tree cutting at Siolim they are probing.
Lobo said he has given his statement to the forest officials who will then report it to the High Court.
“The matter is before the High Court which will be the best judge. I cannot tell you directly what I have said in my statement,” Lobo told the media outside the Forest Department.
When asked whether the trees in Siolim were cut illegally, Lobo said it is for the High Court to decide even as he claimed that the panchayat had got permission although it had lapsed when the trees were actually cut.
Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court at Goa had directed Lobo to make himself available to the Forest Department on Friday to record his statement in their probe into the felling of trees at Siolim.
Some 28 trees, several of which are said to be over a century old, had been felled by a contractor in Siolim purportedly for road widening purposes over a month ago. Angry locals launched a peaceful agitation against the hacking of these trees and were joined by greens from all over Goa.
However, the threat to a number of more trees in the vicinity loomed and a PIL was filed by Aaron Victor Fernandes and others which the High Court took up on March 13 and directed all the government departments to ensure not a single tree will be cut in Siolim further.
The court further made Lobo a respondent after the perusing a video presented by the petitioners in which the former minister is seen and heard boasting that the trees were cut at his behest to speed up the road widening work.
