MARGAO
Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai has said that the Goa government’s decision taken on the eve of Liberation Day to amend the Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 and reclassify the coconut as not a tree seemed clearly to give advantage to an outsider to set up a beer and whiskey manufacturing unit at Ambdai in Sanguem.
He told the media that the Investment Promotion Board of the Goa government has in a decision taken just two days later on December 21 had declared an industrial zone in a thickly vegetated coconut plantation at AmbdaiÂ, Sanguem while simultaneously clearing the beer and whiskey beverages unit, which is to come up after cutting hundreds of healthy coconut trees located on the notified plot.
“The fact that the area has religious significance given the presence of a space of worship at the confluence of two rivers near the notified area where the liqour unit has been allowed clearly indicates that the government is neither bothered about the ecological fallout of chopping trees which the Hindus revere as Kalpavruksha (a wish fulfilling divine tree) nor are they concerned about the local religious sentiments which have even been espoused by BJP’s own local cadre," he said.
Sardesai said the government seemed to be blinded by the greed of making as much in any possible way. “When no Goan comes forward to cut down a live coconut tree because of the religious and ecological reverence of the tree, the government of the day goes so far as to amend the law to institutionalise the chopping of the coconut tree," he said.
The Independent MLA further pointed out that the lame defence that locals were given a tour of a distillery at Bethora becomes a joke when the United Spirits have filed for insolvency with the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction and has sought the approval of its share holders on January 22 for the purpose.
“In effect, it means that the local Legislator actually conducted a tour of the local elected representatives of a company that has gone bust. However, I must clarify that I am neither opposed to investment nor development of local employment opportunities. However, the illogical decision to allow a distillery on a fertile land that has a healthy coconut plantation when there are large stretches of uncultivated fallow land at Sanguem taluka is condemnable. And, the overall effect of the Cabinet decision to institutionalise the destruction of coconut palms that have not only been part of the Goan skyline for centuries but have protected the State from erosion and high speed winds has to be condemned and fought by every self respecting Goemkar to whom the coconut is a symbol of Goenkarponn that the BJP is out to destroy," he said.
