MARGAO
South Goa district Collector, Asvin Chandru on Wednesday assured a delegation of environmentalists and social activists to find out from the PWD over the claim that trees have been indiscriminately trimmed under the guise of monsoon preparedness.
The delegation comprising of Zarinha Da Cunha, Savio Coutinho and others impressed upon the Collector that the PWD did not execute the job of the branches of trees in a scientific manner. In fact, they placed before the Collector documentary evidence suggesting that branches of trees were chopped in a most unscientific manner.
After giving a patient hearing, the Collector assured the delegation that he would ask the PWD, Executive Engineer to find out the ground reality.
The activists pointed out that they had come to the Collector’s office on multiple occasions to raise their concerns and to bring to his notice that this order has been violated under Disaster Management and has been a disaster in the making, when healthy trees have been indiscriminately felled and unnecessary branches have been chopped. “In spite of your intervention and your call with PWD Executive Engineer in our presence, shockingly the activity still continues”, they lamented.
“It is even more disturbing to see that no action has been taken on this contractor in spite of registering a Police complaint which we have attached to the original letter to you. We the citizens after pursuing this for months and are disappointed that the activity continues unabated and just goes to show scant regard for Collector’s orders”, they stated.
