The High Court of Bombay at Goa has ordered those unregistered canoes parked below Amona Bridge and at Oxel-Siolim to be seized as these are either parked in government properties and/or used for illegal sand mining activity.
The Advocate-General for Goa has assured the court that the such canoes would be impounded and destroyed. He further added that the confiscated suction pumps will be used by the government in departments such as sanitation, sewage treatment etc.
Instead of destroying the canoes the government could gift these to some poor, deserving traditional fishermen who stay in and around Amona.
This goodwill gesture would be much appreciated by the recipients, for after all the elections are around the corner!
The government could use the pumps and illegally mined sands for infrastructure purposes. In no case the court should allow the dumping of the sands back into the river as this would cause havoc in the ecology and biota.
