Leave politics aside, think about Goa: Adv Carlos to MLAs who ‘changed stance’ on coal
PANAJI: Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Wednesday appealed to legislators, especially those who switched sides, to come clean on why they have changed their stance concerning coal transport and double tracking in Goa and appealed to them to not sell Goa’s future for politics.
“Sankalp Amonkar used to record videos. He used to go to a Cross at Mormugao and rub his hands across the surface of the Cross and show how blackened they have become. You have changed parties, but the situation has not changed. You will have to explain to the people how your stance has changed,” he said.
“My only request is that we should think about Goa and we should not think about politics. This is not about politics. It is about you and me. We should leave politics aside. Today we are here, tomorrow we may not be there. This damage not only to the environment but to people will be eternal, and will be a long term cascading effect. Don’t play with the lives of our people, don’t allow this to go down, you will go down in history for having finished Goa,” Adv Ferreira said.
He said that the people of Goa need to watch the videos of the same MLAs who have switched sides, who were speaking differently during the 2022 discussion on the issue of coal during the Goa Legislative Assembly.
“Just replay the videos of the discussion that we had in 2022 regarding coal. The genuine concern which they had, you need to ask them what has happened to that concern, because each one is trying to change his statement. Before elections, it was one game, after elections it was the second game and now changing parties is the third game,” Adv Carlos said.
Reacting to power minister Sudin Dhavalikar’s statement that the DPRs for the project were approved during the Congress regime, Adv Carlos said that Dhavalikar (along with Krishna Salkar) were trying to twist words.
“Manohar Parrikar said we will not allow double tracking in Goa. Secondly, the Railway ministry has uploaded on its website concerning the double tracking where the first purpose is mentioned as transportation of coal and tourism comes later. When it is on the ministry’s website that coal transport is the primary purpose, the local BJP is lying when they say it is not for coal,” Adv Carlos said.
“The Chief Minister is saying that the capacity will not be increased. You tell me, on which assurance they have kept their word? They have promised so many things — that there will be no casinos, that casinos will be removed from the Mandovi, but now we see that there are even bigger boats that are coming,” he said.
“The Goa Foundation had gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the ghat section of the project. At that time the CEC said that this project is not viable, that it will cause a lot of environmental destruction. The railways was trying to justify it saying that passenger traffic and goods wagons will increase. The SC exposed that this is a false statement– that you are not using this single line to its full capacity. Which means you don’t have the demand for it. There is no justification for a second line. The Goa Foundation had limited the petition to the Ghat section, probably if they had said that the whole project is not necessary, I think the SC would have quashed the whole thing,” he also said.
“The justification to say that we need double tracking, whether it is for coal, whether it is for passengers, but the SC put a full stop to their lies,” the Aldona MLA said.
As regards the justification saying that tourism will improve, Adv Carlos said that carrying tourists and coal on the same line was not feasible?
“Will you take tourists from here to Karnataka or bring them from here? To bring them black and white. We don’t have proper technology for coal transportation and you have all this coal which is spilling on the way. That is very harmful because it gets into so many fine particles that it will create respiratory problems and people will get sick on the route,” he said
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