SC orders status quo on Mopa airport construction works

MARGAO: The Supreme Court, on Friday, has ordered to maintain status quo on Mopa airport construction works after hearing the two appeals that were filed before it by Federation of Rainbow Warriors and Hanuman Aroskar.

Both the civil appeals were heard together by the court on Friday. The court has asked the respondents — the civil aviation authorities, the state government and the Ministry of Environment and Forest to file their replies within three weeks.

The petitioners, who have challenged the environment clearance (EC) given by the Ministry for Environment and Forest, were given  one week’s time to  file a rejoinder.

“We are happy with the order issued by the  honourable Supreme Court. We will  wait and see what replies the respondents  file and accordingly,  we will file a rejoinder in the court  before the next  hearing. We want redoing of the  Environment Impact Assessment (EIA),for the Mopa airport,” said  Abhijit Prabhudesai, an activist from the Federation of  Rainbow Warriors,  while speaking to this daily, a day after the apex court heard their applications.

The petitioners had challenged the EIA before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on October 28, 2015. It was, however, dismissed in the month of August 2018.

This compelled the petitioners to file civil appeals before the apex court a couple of months back.

The appeals were heard on Friday by the bench comprising Justice Chandrachud and Justice M R Shah.  Advocate Anita Shenoy, who was the counsel for the  petitioners claimed that  the EIA report, which was done for a 10 kilometer radius of the airport, states that there were only bushes to be cut, but in all actuality, the  GMR  sought permission  to cut  55,000 trees from the  Barazen plateau.

“These facts were concealed and never mentioned to get the  Environment Clearance.” Prabhudesai explained how well Shenoy argued the case.

Sources informed that Advocate S Rao representing the GMR tried to explain to the judges that the bushes have now grown into trees, but the  judges  did not accept it.

The judges also did not consider Rao’s  argument that “the green field airport has the  national importance, and therefore, needs to be completed by  2020.”