Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a strong stand against the upcoming three road, rail and power projects along the Goa-Karnataka border, assuring the people of the state that Goa would not be allowed to reduce into a coal hub.
Speaking to farmers at South Goa's Velsao village, where members of the coastal fishing community expressed fears about Goa being turned into a coal hub, Gandhi said that Goa's environment needed to be protected at all costs.
"We are pretty clear that we are not going to allow Goa to become a polluted place, we are not going to allow this idea that Goa, which is a pristine place, should become a coal hub," Gandhi said.
The three projects include rail track expansion by the South Western Railway from Castlerock railway station in Karnataka to Tinaighat railway station in Goa, the National Highway-4 four-laning and the drawing of a power line. All three projects run through protected forest areas in both Goa and Karnataka territories which are a part of the UNESCO-endorsed Western Ghats region.
For the three projects, 50,000 trees in and around Mollem, a village located along the Goa-Karnataka border, have been slotted for felling, cleared by the state and the central government's Ministry for Environment and Forests.
Activists and Opposition parties in Goa have been demanding a review of the three projects, claiming that they were hurriedly granted permission during the pandemic without due diligence.
Opponents of the projects had alleged that the doubling tracking of railway tracks and expansion of the National Highway 4 would lead to increased transportation of coal imported to the Mormugao Port Trust in South Goa to steel mills in Karnataka's Bellary region.
Gandhi also said that Goa and its environment should be preserved, not just for the local community but also tourists who visit the state, citing the example of his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who vacations in South Goa regularly.
"I love the sea here. Sometimes when my mother is not feeling well, she comes here. She takes benefit of your beautiful climate, your beautiful environment, your beautiful sea and there are thousands and thousands of people in India, who also love the sea here, love the environment here," Gandhi said.
Reacting to Gandhi's Goa visit, Karnataka BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who is in Goa to participate in a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha event, said that Gandhi was in Goa as a tourist, because his favourite tourism destination Thailand, had not opened its doors to tourists yet.
"Rahul Gandhi, like Mamata Banerjee, like the Aam Aadmi Party, is a political tourist in Goa. Because of Covid, Thailand may be not taking new tourists and Rahul Gandhi has come for his regular vacation to Goa," Surya told a press conference in Panaji on Saturday.
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