A legislative panel has strongly urged the Goa government to stop offshore casinos and cruise vessels dumping raw sewage into the Mandovi river that runs by this state capital. The panel in its report said that the committee is aghast by learning that the gaming vessels, casinos and boat cruises are releasing all kinds of waste into the Mandovi river thereby causing severe water pollution.
The report is said to be tabled during the monsoon session of the Goa assembly. The committee, headed by Babu Kavlekar of the ruling Congress-led coalition, also asked the state government to initiate proper measures to dispose sewage, garbage and oil. The report also said that the government failed to take any action all these years regarding the waste that the vessels releasing into the river.
Official figure shows that there are seven offshore casinos and nearly a dozen pleasure cruise vessels ply on the Mandovi river. The report also held the government responsible for not taking any action to prevent collisions of vessels in the Mandovi river, one of the state’s major waterbodies in which hundreds of barges ply transporting ore from the mining belt to the trans-shippers anchored portwards.
