PANAJI
With the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) opining that no EC under the amended EIA laws is required for the marina project at Naushim, Aldona MLA, Carlos Alvares Ferreira has said Kargwal Constructions Pvt Ltd cannot revive the project without seeking liberty from the Bombay High Court.
Raising a host of contentious issues related to the project, Alvares-Ferreira said the very lease granted to the project proponents by the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) is done by the latter without authority.
"The land does not belong to MPA which is only an authority to administer the port with jurisdiction over an area. It is akin to the PDAs which have powers to permit land use in its jurisdiction but it does not own the land," Alavares-Ferreira said questioning the locus-standi of the MPA to grant the lease.
The lease was under challenge in the petition Alvares-Ferreira argued for current St Andre MLA Viresh Borkar and Manoj Parab against the project.
The petition was disposed by the High Court after the State government submitted to the court that the project is being scrapped.
Another serious impediment the proponents will face in reviving the project, according to Alvares-Ferreira, is the fact that the area where it is being proposed is a habitat of the endangered window-pane oysters (Placuna Placenta) which is in schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
