GBA FLAYS COPS FOR DISRUPTING AWARNESS PROGRAMME

Goa Bachao Abhiyan has strongly condemned the action of the Goa Police to disrupt the awareness programme on the DLF project at Dabolim in Chicalim Panchayat area on the pretext of asking written NOC to conduct an awareness program even without loudspeakers . The organizers - the Chicalim Village Action Group [CVAC] and Concerned Residents of Mormugao [CROM] - had oral permission from the persons concerned and this was communicated to the police, GBA said in a press note issued here.That the police were prejudiced against the awareness program was obvious as they reportedly visited homes of local residents and intimidated them, GBA general secretary Reboni Saha said adding that “men went to people’s houses urging them not to attend the program, despite which people came and attended the same. When that did not work, the police stated that some people had complained and stopped the meeting despite knowing that the complainants had no locus standi in the matter. Villagers from adjoining talukas who were en route to the meeting were misguided and sent to Vasco town from Airport junction instead, she added.The harassment of the locals continued even today, with the police summoning to the Vasco police station for questioning Mr Edwin Mascarenhas and the persons who had given permission to hold the programme. The Vasco police took written NOC from the committee members of the chapel for the meeting after they disrupted it yesterday. Residents of Mormugao today marched to the police station and questioned the action of the police who were quick to summon activists for interrogation but failed to act on complaints of illegal hill cutting and felling of trees despite complaints.GBA states that if every thing was legal, it was unfortunate that the elected members chose to disrupt an awareness program instead of informing the people by democratic methods or at the gram sabha why they permitted the mega holiday home projects.With the disruption of the meeting by vested interest, aided by the police and illegal permissions by various departments, the GBA has all the more reason to believe that everything is not right with the DLF project, general secretary Reboni Saha said. Despite the people wanting the awareness program to continue, GBA decided to wind off the meeting to avoid law and order problem, which apparently the promoters of DLF desperately wanted, the press note said. The modus operandi planned by the disrupters was to make the local people fight among themselves so that the attention from their illegal activities got diverted, GBA said.