PANAJI: The Goa Bachav Abhiyan (GBA), environmental activists and the Congress have criticised the Central government’s decision to change the jurisdiction of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Petitions from Goa will now have to be filed at the principal bench in Delhi instead of the western zone bench in Pune.
The activists have called the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) notification to this effect, issued on August 10, “atrocious and arbitrary”. The ministry had demarcated the NGT’s jurisdiction into north, south, east and west zones, along with principal and regional benches on August 11, 2011.
Goan activists, led by Siddarth Karapurkar, said the jurisdictional change was a “clear attempt to discourage us from taking up environmental matters”.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Shantaram Naik, asked if the MoEF had sought consent of the State government ahead of its notification. “If not, the State must demand that the notification, which is against the interest of Goan environment protection and people of Goa, is withdrawn,” Mr. Naik said during a press conference at the Congress headquarters on Sunday.
Sabina Martins of the GBA, which spearheads the cause of appropriate land planning in the State, said, “The ramifications of this mischievous move are serious and unconstitutional. It deliberately places the environmental tribunals beyond the reach of citizens. It can be imagined as if the High Court were taken out of Goa and moved to Delhi, with no reasoning behind it.”
GBA secretary Reboni Saha urged citizens to make their displeasure known to the MoEF and let their local elected representatives clearly know that this change was unacceptable.
“Inequity and environmental degradation are proven indicators of social unrest. The move to weaken environmental safeguards is something that should worry every citizen and the government, if it had the future of India in mind. Evidently not,” Ms. Saha said.
Activist-lawyer Aires Rodrigues, too, strongly condemned the notification as mala fide and irrational. Mr. Rodrigues said that while the Supreme Court’s thrust was on making justice more accessible to people, the Centre had burdened Goan citizens, who will have to travel all the way to Delhi to approach the NGT.
He alleged that it was a clear attempt to deny justice to the common man and allow the State to ignore or even participate in environmental violations. Mr. Rodrigues has appealed to the High Court Bar Association and other lawyers’ associations in the State to intervene against the government’s decision.
