It's shocking how nowadays in Goa every rule in the book is broken - thanks to the connivance of our greedy Goan politicians, corrupt Government officials including those from the Forest Department, Town and Country Planning Department and the various officials like Secretary town and country planning and forest Rajiv Yaduvanshi, chief town planner Morad Ahmed, senior town planner S Puttaraju, deputy town planner Vinod Kumar and the other stooges within the department like Diniz; as well as director of Panchayats Menino D'Souza and the various village Panchayats who are all working overtime to destroy Goa rather than fulfil their responsibilities towards protecting Goa, it’s villages, forests, rivers, hills and natural environment. Look at the ongoing Tivim stadium row, a classic example wherein massive destruction is sought to be wrought to a Forest area.
The proposed cricket stadium which is likely to come up at Tivim over an area of 1.30 lakh sq mt is a forest area and also includes fields and orchards that have been declared as eco-sensitive zone 1 in the regional plan. The TCP officials hand in glove with the Government have not given representation to private forests, which cover around 1 lakh hectares of land, in the regional plan and this should be incorporated in the RP 2021. The Karapurkar committee appointed by the government had specifically demarcated it as a private forest for protection purposes. Moreover Section 16 (A) of the TCP Act which was meant to be applied for emergency cases like construction of railways and roads had been violated for constructing a cricket stadium in this case! All this Forest land had been leased out to a private party which is working in tandem with the Goa Cricket Association. We just celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day - yesterday April 22nd and the world that we live in is in greater peril than ever. While destruction of our Environment and climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean environment now and for the future by protecting what Goa has been blessed with over the ages. Earth Day 2010 could have been a turning point to renew our commitment and advance protection of our Goan Environment, climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, green jobs and sustainable development for the Goan people. While more than one billion people in 190 countries are taking action for Earth Day, sadly our Goan Government didn't have a single event or public awareness campaign to commemorate the event!. Now why would the Goa Government including Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Environment Minister Alexio Sequeira and the rest of the MLAS with our Corrupt Officials want to celebrate Earth Day when they are responsible for the greatest damage to Goa's Environment and Ecology? Everyday we are exposed to the harmful and irreversible effects of damaging Mining activities, Real-Estate projects , Construction and such projects like this cricket stadium in Tivim in a forest area . Kudos to our Goan NGOs like Goa Foundation, MAAND, GAKUVED, Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA), SEZ Virodhi Manch and various village groups and the common man in Goa who have been standing up to protect the Goan environment. Finally we must not forget the yeoman service done in many a case by the Bombay High Court at Goa to protect the rule of Law and Goa. Truly if we look at the true stalwarts in Goa who we need to be recognized on the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day we know that it is these men and women standing up to protect Goa who need to be saluted on this 40th anniversary of Earth Day. The following article is from the Herald. ************************************************************ Temporary relief to Tivim stadium row HERALD REPORTER GCA vows not to cut trees till hearing PANJIM, APRIL 22 The controversy over proposed international Cricket Stadium at Tivim has been temporarily put to rest. On being taken to court, Goa Cricket Association (GCA) on Thursday assured that it will not cut any trees on the land acquired for cricket stadium till the matter is heard. Environmental NGO Goa Foundation along with three residents have challenged the approval granted by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for diversion of 44,000 sq mts of forest at Tivim village for construction of commercial facilities connected with the development of the cricket stadium which is proposed to be constructed by the GCA. When the matter came up for hearing before the Division Bench of Justices S J Vazifdar and U D Salvi the senior counsel Surendra Desai Desai representing GCA told the court that they will not cut down trees till the matter is heard. As regard to other land (non-forest land), he said, work will not be commenced until necessary permissions are obtained and sought adjournment to file proper reply. The court will next hear the matter on June 21. The petitioners GF, Uday Mavlankar, Gorakhnath Mavlankar and Ashok Parab sought a quashing of the forest clearance granted in relation to construction of an international cricket stadium and ancillary buildings and the proposed clear-felling of a natural forest involving 2500 trees on the grounds that the competent authority was not given adequate information by the agencies that moved the proposal. The proposal for international stadium was moved in 2007 by ex-finance minister and chairman of GCA Dayanand Narvekar. The petitioners alleged that Town and Country Planning Department had rejected the application for change of zone of plot. This was not communicated to MoEF. They further charged that GCA is a private association set up to promote cricket which has been masterminding and manipulating behind the scenes all the procedures for takeover of the land and forest for construction of an international cricket stadium in which there are serious improprieties The clearance granted therefore is in violation of the forest guidelines for approvals relating to diversion of forest areas to non-forestry purposes. Also, GCA and the Director of Sports and Youth Affairs have also not procured the mandatory environment clearance, alleged petitioners.
