23:13 IST
the blue room
Baina,Goa
“Its greatest asset is one: its environment and its ecology — its rivers and riverbanks, its beaches, its lakes and clear streams, its dense forests, its low hills and fertile fields, its boulders and even trees shrouded with moss and vines and lichen in the rains, its ridiculously brilliant sunsets. …If the NGT in Pune has so very many cases from Goa, it is not because — or not just because — the people of Goa are litigious…It is because they perceive that there is something of value here to protect. …Our duty, and that of every government too, must be to ensure that these attempts to protect the environment can be brought to a forum that is close at hand, where environmental issues can be addressed quickly, without having to travel great distances, and at a cost the poorest in the land, not just the well-heeled, can afford.”
Selected some paragraphs from Bombay’s High Court Judge Hon. Gautam Patel’s judgement on keeping Goa’s National Green Tribunal (India’s top environmental court) circuit bench in Pune, and not Delhi.
A few weeks ago, the central ministry of environment and forests along with Goa’s state government decided to shift Goa’s cases at the National Green Tribunal,from Pune to Delhi, citing “convenience of the Govt officials and lawyers” as one of the reasons for the move.
It is a fact that more than half of the cases at NGT Pune come from Goa, and are mostly represented by the litigants themselves – people who take the train or the bus to get to Pune from Goa in a few hours. It is also a fact that Goa is closer to Pune than Delhi, when one discounts flight travel.
When governance looks at its own convenience over the convenience of its people, the people take over. And that’s exactly what they did.
It is heartening to see such a judgment come out in a time when views on development and progress are lopsided. It strengthens my belief in the judiciary and the relentless good work of the guardians of the planet.
And Goa’s sunsets are truly, ridiculously, beautiful.