*PRESS STATEMENT*
Hailing the Supreme Court verdict suspending the environmental clearance given by the MoEF to the proposed Mopa Airport project, GFDO thanked Hanuman Aroskar, Rainbow Warriors and their legal team for their painstaking perseverance and hard work at the Supreme Court on behalf of the community of Goans. There is no doubt that the SC Order has struck a significant blow for the cause of sustainable development. It is a clear vindication of the concerns expressed by citizens groups right from the time of the so called public hearing set up to give validity to the unacceptably casual, shoddy and shallowly constructed document being brazenly passed off as an EIA by Engineers India Ltd. Shockingly, this document did not even remotely reflect the ground realities that prevailed on the Mopa plateau and its surroundings. In fact, the Mopa Airport issue has been a distressing revelation of the manner in which corporates and governments operate in tandem as a law unto themselves. It will be recalled that then MoEF Minister Javadekar announced that his Ministry would look positively on the granting of the EC even before the crucial EAC meeting had been held. Without waiting for the minutes of the meeting to be written, the then CM Parsekar came up with another fait accompli, by announcing that the EC had already been granted for the Mopa Project. The adhocism of the state administration aided by the BJP government at the Centre, makes it crystal clear that due processes were coldly and callously bypassed in the granting of this EC, which even had the blessings of Prime Minister Modi himself, who personally laid the foundation stone for this contentious project, despite the various allegations of irregularities, controversies and ongoing court cases that cast a cloud over it. For a long time now, GFDO has maintained that the unviable and economically unfeasible Mopa Airport Project would ultimately collapse like a house of cards under its own inherent contradictions despite the veneer of confidence that the Government and GMR sought to project. There is no doubt that the process of unraveling has now begun. GMR Infrastructure <https://www.livemint.com/Companies/VGsP83UIUHVwb0kQdL7yTM/GMR-Infra-settles-row-with-investors-in-airport-business.html>, which showed a net debt of $2.9 billion at the end of December 2018, has been selling assets to pay off liabilities. In fact it is presently in the process of selling off around 45% of its stakeholdings to a consortium comprising Tata Group, GIC, and SSG Capital Management. The huge cost of the delay to the Mopa Airport project is yet another blow to GMR Infrastructure, which has been allegedly subsisting through sweet deals made in collaboration with various governments like in the case of the one sided Mopa Concessionaire Agreement. It has been a long and hard road for the people of Goa, particularly the poor farmers of Mopa who have been struggling to protect their land against the degradation of the unnecessary Mopa Airport project. Now that the new Chief Minister Dr. Sawant has decided to review the project to ensure that all conditions laid down by the Apex Court are met, GFDO appeals to him to also carefully review the allegations of serious inconsistencies, procedural lapses and irregularities in the totally one sided Mopa Airport Concessionaire Agreement that make it abundantly clear that the Government bent over backwards to give undue concessions to the Concessionaire at the cost of Goa and Goans, by surrendering valuable land and foregoing much needed revenue, which is highly irregular and goes against the public interest. For GOANS FOR DABOLIM ONLY Eremito Rebelo Convenor
