Dear Roger, I went through your letter and found disgusting to read the contents of it. First of all I was under the impression that the Chairman of Goa State Pollution Control Board is doing a good work for this state. You have said the Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha is working under pressure from the Parsekar, Alina Saldanha and Manohar Parrikar is quite disturbing. Since Fr. Eremita is a Convenor of this Anti-Mopa agitation, I respect him , and that he is for Dabolim only, I reiterate and support his statement and I am also for it. In regards to Pollution Control Chairman Chairman sending or forwarding the EIA public hearing report without carrying out an independent study it shows immaturity and probably he needs to get back the submission, or advices them that he will be sending his own assessment report for needful. I expect that Jose Manuel will do that job, who is a good person with good behaviour and excellent background, he should be able to guide this issue in logical end in the interest of Goans. He will not and should not side BJP politically as his tenure is likely to end or else he has interest to continue working in the same position or awaiting Manohar Parrikar's orders for continuation of his further term.. I am aware from what I have seen in his Board Laboratory, that the scientific instruments are not in order or proper shape, and not at the level of Research organisation since I am competent to judge it, as I was a former Instrumentation Group in-charge in National Institute of Oceanography, D.Paula. Their Microbiology laboratory is in lower form with few instruments and the Board is not having the requisite sophisticated instruments to undertake such environment or pollution tests at that level of EIA or our Institute of NIO. They do not have an instrumentation engineer to undertake with the repairs as and when goes faulty or if needed to adjust its calibration/ settings etc as the staff are not experienced/competent for it, but may be qualified in microbiology as they are just fresh. The Board have been recently appointed on contract basis a person who is retired and do not have any latest experience and knowledge on these affairs of pollution tests. Although this person is well qualified in teaching line only but not at the laboratory level. He claims that he does tests or analysis at home but I have seen he has no equipment nor any test tubes or chemicals solutions/ reagents etc to undertake such analysis. Reports are mostly submitted based on the old reports available in the professional labs. Government must ensure that the future a Chairman must be appointed in the GSPCB with the experience on analyzing all kind of samples taken from the polluted industries,hotels and rivers etc.
Stephen Dias D.Paula ========================================================================= Message: 7 Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 10:37:38 +0800 From: roger dsouza <[email protected]> To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: [Goanet] Anti-Mopa battle will be fought on streets and court too: GFDO (Herald) Message-ID: <CAFAPDeT=kf+g5pnegopqcxwsrwm_+axxkggpdbrtaxyhtvg...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Anti-Mopa battle will be fought on streets and court too: GFDO Lambasts Pollution Control Board chairman for forwarding EIA public hearing report without carrying out an independent study 21 Feb, 2015, TEAM HERALD MARGAO: Asserting that its ongoing battle against Mopa will continue in the people?s court as well as in the judiciary, Goans for Dabolim Only (GFDO) on Friday said that Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha should quit office if he is working under political pressure. Slamming the GSPCB for forwarding the EIA public hearing report to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests without carrying out an independent study on the issue, the GFDO has demanded to know whether the GSPCB chairman is working under the pressure from Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar or Environment Minister Alina Saldanha. The GFDO also warned the MLAs supporting the BJP government that the organisation will come out in the open to get them defeated in the 2017 assembly election. Addressing the media, GFDO Convenor Fr Eremito Rebello said the GSPCB chairman has committed a grave mistake by deciding to send the EIA public hearing report to the MoEF. ?The GSPCB is an autonomous body and the chairman is being paid from the tax payer?s money. He is acting on political pressure. He should resign from office if he is working under pressure?, he said. Rajendra Kakodkar said the GSPCB chairman owes an apology to the people of Goa for sending the EIA public hearing report to the MoEF without carrying out an independent study. Fr Rebello said that an impression is created in many quarters that the GFDO has abandoned the path of agitation and will fight the issue in the court. He clarified that the issue will be vociferously fought on the streets as well as in the court. ?Though our approach towards countering the so called EIA is administrative cum judicial, the overall strategy in the struggled for Dabolim only will continue in the people?s court?, he asserted. Sidharth Karapurkar and Edwin Pinto demanded to know whether the GSPCB used it own machinery and scientists to study the EIA report and further asked whether the board had given an independent opinion on the pros and cons of the project. They further sought to know why the EIA public hearing was not held on the Maharashtra side of the border coming within the 10 km radius and which has been demarcated as a wildlife elephant corridor. Fr Eremito reiterated that Dabolim will serve Goa?s requirements if Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar uses his clout at the Centre and release additional land for the expansion of the existing airport. ?We want to tell the ruling MLAs that the assembly election is just two years away. We want to ask them how they will face the electorate for not opposing Mopa?, Fr Eremito said, while warning that GFDO along with the people will come out in the open to get these MLAs defeated. ------------------------------
