the goan I network
PANAJI
Villagers of Nauxim, mostly tribals and traditional fishermen, on Friday opened up yet another front of opposition against the Mormugao Port Trust-backed private project to set up a massive Marina along the Northern bank of Zuari River.
“The EIA report is more a ‘project report’ and hardly an assessment of the environmental impact of the project. It only talks of the benefits to tourism and generation of revenue. There is no mention of the biodiversity and other ecological issues,” said Advocate Suresh Palkar, a former zilla parishad member representing the area.
Palkar was addressing a press conference in the city along with over two dozen villagers from Nauxim, a ward of the Curca-Bambolim panchayat.
Palkar also slammed the proposal saying it is evidently a conspiracy between the MPT, Goa government and the Mumbai-based promoter of the project -
Kargwal Constructions Pvt Ltd. He said, the deadline for finalisation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan for Goa is November 5 and it is strange that the Goa State Pollution Control Board has fixed the public hearing on the EIA for the Marina project on
November 2.
“The outcomes of the two public hearings will serve cross purposes,” Palkar said. The Marina project, was first envisaged in 2010 and after it was shelved following protests, it returned on the government’s agenda again in 2015. Palkar said, the then MLA of St Andre, the late Vishnu Wagh had strongly opposed the project which forced the State government to shelve it again in 2015.
“Now, it is being resurrected for the third time. The aim is to displace the entire human habitation in the village. The lease
agreement between MPT and the private firm is fictitious. It’s null and void and we demand that the government do a rethink and cancel the public hearing fixed for November 2,” Palkar said in the presence of a large number of villagers from Nauxim. He added that the very jurisdiction of the MPT over the area is questionable.
Meanwhile, another villager Prakash Fatarpekar claimed that the Nauxim riverfront is host to one of the richest fish breeding grounds certified by separate studies conducted by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) as well as the Indian Council for Agricultural Research
(ICAR).
“We even have the threatened by extinction ‘Sea Horse’ in the waters there and we fishermen release them back in the waters if they are caught in our nets,” Fatarpekar said, adding that the government should forthwith reject the Marina project.
Activist Rama Kankonkar announced that a massive rally will be organised on November 8 which will cover the entire Zuari river bank stretch from Odxel to Agassaim.
