It was surprising to read Godfrey Gonsalves' claim that GFDO members like
Jose Maria Miranda, Fr. Eremito, Abhijit and Siddarth Karapurkar came almost
two and a half hours late. This is not true. We came together - I drove them
myself and we arrived even before the Collector announced the opening of the
proceedings and were seated on the 9th row from the front.
I am surprised that Godfrey whom I sat down with for some time has not
mentioned in his post about Siddarth Karapurkar being attacked physically
and hit on the head during the reading of the minutes. Why would the crowd
bother to attack voices like Siddarth Karapurkar's and Fr. Eremito's if they
were feeble. What were the comments made by the opponents when Jose Maria
Miranda and his 'feeble' voice came down from the platform?
GFDO has collected innumerable specific writtten objections on the
environmental issue by various individuals from different stations of life.
It was a mammoth task xeroxing and getting acknowledgements for each one
from the administration. Commenting on other people's performances and
making great demands on them is comes naturally to some people I guess.
Great are the expectations of some people of others. GFDO has been on the
streets for two years, constantly interacting with elected representatives,
government officials, holding village meetings all over Goa including up
North as far as Aldona, organising public meetings and writing press notes -
all whilst conducting the personal bread and butter tasks of their daily
living. GDFO has not restricted its activities to a sporadic appearance at a
Public Hearing.
Godfrey Gonsalves however, is entitled to his opinion and I am very sorry
that we have failed to live up to his expectations.
Edwin Pinto
