NGT will hear Tiracol residents, Goa Foundation appeal against Leading Hotels Ltd on Feb 6
09, Jan 2015 The NGT at Pune today issued notice on an appeal filed by three Tiracol villagers (Anthony Mendes, Juze Godinho and Agnel Godinho), together with the Goa Foundation, challenging the environmental and CRZ clearances given to the Golf Course Resort project of the Leading Hotels Ltd. Proposed at Tiracol village, Pednem, Goa. The appeal has been fixed for purpose of interim relief on stay of construction or development on February 6, 2015. The appellants are challenging the CRZ clearance dated 9.12.2014 issued by the Ministry of Environment & Forests under the provisions of the CRZ Notification of 6.1.2011 in respect of a golf course resort project sought to be constructed in the village of Tiracol, Pednem, Goa. Since the CRZ clearance is one of the conditions imposed through the prior environment clearance (EC) granted by the SEIAA, the Appellants are also challenging the environment clearance dated 12.4.2013 granted by the SEIAA for the same project of the Leading Hotels. Grounds for the appeal are: a) The CRZ clearance is issued in violation of direction issued by the High Court in its judgement dated 13.10.2006 in WP No.422/1998, since the area is not earmarked for purposes of location of a resort. b) The CRZ clearance is contrary to the CRZ policy of the State, which is to allow resort projects only in settlement zone, pursuant to the judgement of the Bombay High Court in Writ Petition No.422/1998. c) The CRZ clearance shows no recognition that part of the the area is forest; wrong information has been supplied by the respondents to the MOEF in respect of the forest existing on the lands requisitioned for the project. d) Tiracol Fort, which is demarcated CRZ I and setback line has not been considered. The existence of this CRZ I heritage site is not mentioned in the CRZ clearance, let alone safeguards imposed. e) The CRZ clearance is based on a faulty and manipulated EC. The EC has been granted by the SEIAA in a fraudulent manner, without the approval or recommendations of the SEAC and in fact it is contrary to the actual recommendations of the SEAC. Further, the EC has also been granted for establishing a resort on Survey Numbers that have been specifically identified by the North Goa District Forest Committee as private forest and this fact is nowhere represented in the EC, which means the EC was granted without even awareness of existence of forest on the project land. f) The establishment of a golf course on lands which are intermingled with and adjacent to the agricultural lands of the appellants will adversely affect these lands and also the environment of the village settlement in which they reside, including its water resources and fishing grounds and these aspects have not been considered at all either by the MOEF’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on CRZ while granting the CRZ clearance, or earlier, by the SEAC or the SEIAA while granting the EC. Entire area including the lands of the appellants have been considered as part of the area for CRZ clearance/EC without their consent or knowledge. It may be recalled that a petition filed against the Golf Resort Project is pending admission before the Bombay High Court, Panaji bench. It is scheduled to be taken up on January 12, 2015. The NGT also adjourned hearing on the Tiracol bridge petition to early February, in view of stay already granted, and in view of the fact that the State Government sought time to file a counter to the affidavit filed by the Goa Foundation on 1.1.2015. Goa Foundation counsel, Mrs Norma Alvares, produced a new notification issued by the Ministry of Environment amending the CRZ notification issued in November 2014, which had not been taken into account by the Ministry itself when it filed its affidavit before the NGT. - See more at: http://www.targetgoa.com/goabuzzdet.php?bzid=6605&&id=3#sthash.NxOWvO7X.dpuf
