MARGAO
With all eyes focused on the January 16 meeting scheduled at the Curtorim Panchayat hall on the contentious issue of the draft notification to accord biodiversity heritage tag to the lakes in Curtorim, Environment Minister Alexio Sequeira said on Friday that views expressed by the stakeholders at the meeting will be placed before the Chairperson of the Panel headed by retired Judge Desmond D’Costa.
Commenting on the controversy surrounding the draft notification to declare Curtorim lakes as biodiversity heritage sites, Sequeira said he has told the Goa State Biodiversity Board Member Secretary to call the meeting at the Curtorim Panchayat hall on January 16 to elicit the views of the stakeholders in view of the objections to the draft notification by the Board.
Saying he had a meeting with the Chairman of the Curtorim Biodiversity Management Committee, J Santan Rodrigues, and Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco on the contentious issue, the Environment Minister, who also heads the GSBB as its Chairperson, said he wanted to hear the views in order to resolve the issue.
“A committee headed by retired Judge Desmond D’Costa has been constituted to go into the objections received to the draft notification to declare the lakes as biodiversity heritage sites. The Chairperson will go into the objections and will call the parties for a hearing. After hearing the parties, the Chairperson will guide the GSBB on how to go about the work,” Sequeira said, adding that people have been talking in different voices over the notification to declare the Curtorim lakes as biodiversity heritage sites.
