Sardinha scraps Cong's panel, appoints another to probe Meta Strips

Sandesh Prabhudesai
28 January 2000  

Governments keep on changing in Goa, but only with a difference of opinion on who will share the power and not on the crucial ecological and developmental issues the tiny tourist state is confronted with. It has been proved once again on the issue of the controversial Meta Strips project, against which the eight-month old people's movement is slowly taking a state-wide shape. Even after non-Congress government came to power, the issue is still lingering on.

The new coalition government of the Congress breakaway faction led by chief minister Francisco Sardinha and the Bharatiya Janata Party immediately scrapped the one-man Justice Sindhkar commission, appointed by the erstwhile Congress government, to probe into the pollution aspect of the project and irregularities involved in approving it.

"Why should we go ahead with such an enquiry if the local people are not in favour of it", Sardinha had stated while scrapping the commission soon after coming to power in November. He had also assured to take a cabinet decision on the project.

But what has ultimately come out of it is yet another enquiry, which Sardinha prefers to term as a debate among the experts, to be headed by yet another retired judge if not Justice Sindhkar. The agitators have obviously also opposed this experiment.

But Sardinha intends to appoint some experts also suggested by the agitators, besides some national experts like the director of environment and director of metallurgical department and even professors related to the subject.

The project of manufacturing brass sheets out of imported scrap worth Rs 250 crore and owned by Sushil Khaitan is coming up with a Spanish collaboration on a hillock of Sancoale village near the port town of Vasco. But, fearing air, noise and water pollution, at least five villages have waged a war against it, with active support of the local Church.

It proved to be a major issue even for the Lok Sabha elections held here in September, as a result of which the then ruling Congress lost both the constituencies to the BJP. Even the Church supported the saffron party, though indirectly, in protest of Congress' pro-Meta Strips stand.

But the BJP-supported Sardinha government appears no different from the Congress. "We will scrap Meta Strips if it is proved to be pollutant. But how can we know it unless the experts debate over it", asks Sardinha, the same language his predecessor Luizinho Faleiro was speaking.

He also does not have a valid convincing argument to justify his action of scrapping the Sindhkar Commission and appointing a similar kind of body headed by another retired judge. Surprisingly, the recent experts' body would not probe into the irregularities conducted while approving the project.

The project was cleared within six days during the Congress regime of earlier Assembly, without even holding the high power co-ordination committee meeting, a legal requirement otherwise. Faleiro was the industries minister that time.

But Pratapsing Rane, who was the chief minister at the time of approval, is the speaker now and supports the Sardinha government. Alex Sequeira, who had then played major role as the Industrial Development Corporation chairman, is the industries minister today.

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