CAPTAIN OF PORTS JETTY

However, the Captain of Ports and Carjwal contractors of Mumbai with Mr Pandey as its Managing Director, misused the permission for beautification of the jetty to build concrete piers into the water body, they were drilled into the riverbed almost 40 metres deep and having a diameter of 1.2 metres.
All together there are around over 300 piers intruding into the Mandovi river basin. Each pier contains about 14 tons of concrete and they are on the rise, as a result thousands of tons of concrete has been dumped on the riverbed which is a disaster for marine biodiversity and mangroves. People of Goa have done nothing to save the Mandovi river’s ecosystem, environment and biodiversity!
Notoriously this jetty today is used to transport gamblers to feeder boats to the casinos and therefore, as a result, sewage is transported by tankers to the STP plant at Tonca. Thus, magnifying the pollution of the Mandovi river via the St Inez creek now nallah, which is so heavily polluted.
As a young boy 70 years ago I used to go fishing in the St Inez Creek which has been festering for years into the monumental mess in which it is today. It must be known to Goans by and large that the three-floor terminal building promoted by notorious politicians of Goa, which was inaugurated by late Manohar Parrikar, and the plaque still existing at the jetty, is going to increase gambling, prostitution, noise volume by taxi owners and the gambling tourists. All this destroys the serene ambience of the jetty for illicit activities and promotes crime.
Fortunately, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been apprised by environmental advocates Laxmi Sawant and Nigel da Costa Frias who are supporting the petition filed by Dr Joe de Souza, retired professor of Goa University, and the legal case is in progress.
On February 14, 2022 Ponjekars and all Goans will be voting in a new assembly. I plead with Goans to ensure that all those politicians responsible for polluting our rivers, lakes, water bodies and those involved in promoting coal pollution, are weeded out. Let us vote only for environment-conscious candidates who will keep Goa green and clean first today, tomorrow and forever.
–By Stephen Dias, Dona Paula

GOA, A STORY OF BETRAYALS!

SAY what you like. The Goa Trinamool Congress has stirred up the muddy waters in which the lotus struggles to bloom! The TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has been clueing up Goan voters on ground level realities. In his latest tete-e-tete he wonders how Goans can vote anew for betrayers like the lotus-seekers of the BJP?
While campaigning for TMC candidates in two mega public rallies organised in Cumbarjua and Aldona constituencies, he asked how Goans can swallow the big betrayal of 2017? In a hard-hitting address he reminded Goans, “Every MLA you voted for sold their souls for Rs50 crore. Everyone in Goa is aware of this fact. On an average there are about 20,000-25,000 votes per constituency. So, you can calculate for yourself. One vote for them costs Rs20,000. Your vote, your trust, your faith, your love, your blessings, your honour is being sold by both the BJP and the Congress for a meagre Rs20,000!”
He reminded, “What happened with you all in 2017 has never happened in any other state in these 50 years. You voted for Congress, you had rejected the BJP. But the Congress played with the love and trust of the people of Goa. The buying and selling politics must stop in Goa. Time has come for you to vote for clean politics, vote for TMC. Voting any other party except Trinamool Congress is equal to voting the BJP which in turn means the defeat of Goa.”
Amongst a lot of other pertinent things he also said that the “double-engine sarkar” talk by BJP really means “double loot…the loot of resources happening in Goa, and another loot of the national exchequer that is happening in Delhi. Because of the double-engine disaster, youth in Goa have to pay close to Rs20 lakh to land themselves a decent job.”
And a final note of TMC cheer, “When we say that we will give Rs5,000 to a woman in every household through the Griha Laxmi scheme, we mean every word of it. Today, I throw open a challenge to anyone in the BJP. If and when the BJP can prove that their welfare schemes are better than the welfare schemes in Bengal, the same day I will quit politics.”
Anyone taking on the challenge?