MARGAO
Asserting that Goans for Dabolim Only (GFDO) remains committed to take the anti-Mopa movement to its logical conclusion, Fr Eremito Rebelo on Wednesday appealed to all the political parties to incorporate in their manifestos their opposition to Mopa and eventually fight with determination against this project if they are sincere in their intentions.
Saying that Mopa is involved in serious controversies and contradictions, Fr Eremito said that GFDO is confident that the victory will ultimately be people’s. “GFDO took immense pain in creating awareness in the people of Goa about the ill-effects of Mopa and its serious apprehensions that Dabolim would be closed if Mopa became a reality. We organised corner and public meetings in various places in Goa, including in Bardez and Tiswadi and largely attended meetings in Margao,” Fr Eremito said.
He further pointed out that GFDO had sought information under RTI on various issues connected with their struggle and its members met ministers, MLAs, political leaders, government officials, the press, wrote letters to the Prime Minister, Environment Minister and others. True to their aim of stopping the project, one of the GFDO active members resigned solely to file a petition in NGT against the flawed EIA.
“As I have already stated earlier, GFDO had never stopped any group or political party from pursuing the cause of retention of Dabolim as Goa’s only airport. If political parties, which still exist or have since gone defunct, decided not to advocate this cause vigorously, then perhaps they had their own reasons to do so and they should not blame us for their failure,” he said.
In fact, Fr Eremito said that GFDO strongly feels that if any political party has the interests of Goans at heart, it ought to have taken up this issue with all its might and sincerity, as Mopa is bound to spell doom to Goa’s environment and economy. “Considering that political parties, unlike NGOs, are often driven by votes rather than the larger interests of the State, the core team of GFDO took a conscious and unanimous decision of not associating itself with any political party,”
he asserted.
