Goemkarponn desk
VASCO: Goencho Ekvott welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court, which has upheld the recommendation of its own Central Empowered Committee to scrap the double-tracking in Goa and dedicated this victory to the late Julio Aguiar, who was the vice-chairman and the people of Goa.
In its press statement, GE stated that the central government has forced these disastrous projects on the people of Goa since the double-tracking is exclusively built for the transportation of hazardous coal from Indonesia, Mozambique and Australia via Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) to the neighbouring steel Plants in Karnataka.
Joint Secretary of Goencho Ekvott Olencio Simoes stated that the doubling tracking is passing through the UNESCO site in Mollem wildlife sanctuary in the Western Ghats, an Ecologically Sensitive Area that has already been declared by Dr. K. Kasturirangan in 2017 appointed by the central environment ministry.
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the eight hot spots of biological diversity in the world, and Goa is located in the central Western Ghats and bio-geographically an important area on which Goa is heavily dependent for its rainfall.
Orville Dourado, the founder member of Goencho Ekvott, stated that the government should scrap all the three linear projects in totality and immediately direct all departments to stop work on double-tracking and scrap the land acquisition process revert all acquired land for double-tracking throughout Goa.
GE also warns that if RVNL and SWR violate any standing orders, then the people of Goa will force to take the law in hand as both these agency has continuously violated the law.