PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Wednesday said it will step in and do its duty in case the investigation to pin responsibility for the felling of age-old trees allegedly for widening the road is inconclusive.
The observation was made when the petitioners in the PIL pointed out that following the affidavits filed by the respondents, including an engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) and former minister and MLA Michael Lobo, there was a stalemate as nobody was taking responsibility for the felling of the ancient trees.
An inquiry into the episode in which some 28 trees, several of which are said to be over a century old, is being conducted by the Forest Department, the Advocate General Devidas Pangam, had informed the court at the last hearing.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, the Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justices Mahesh Sonak and Valmiki Menezes, also asked Lobo to appear before the Forest Department to record his statement on Friday after the Forest Department had informed that he (Lobo) had sought time on a summon sent to him.
The Bench then adjourned the matter and fixed it for next hearing on April 22.
Lobo had landed in a spot of trouble after he was made a respondent by the court at the last hearing on March 27 after a video submitted by the petitioners in which he is seen and heard claiming credit for the work of road widening and the felling of the trees at Siolim.
The legislator who represents Calangute but whose wife Delilah is the MLA of Siolim, has also filed an affidavit explaining his position on the matter but its contents have not been made public. Some 28 trees said to be over a century old had been felled by a contractor in Siolim purportedly for road widening purposes and locals were agitating against it. Greens from all over Goa also joined the agitation but the threat to a number of other trees in the vicinity didn’t go away prompting them to file the PIL before the High Court.
The PIL has been filed by Aaron Victor Fernandes and in the first hearing of the matter on March 13, the government departments were directed to take precaution so that not a single tree will be cut in Siolim further.
