Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant ignored concerns raised by the Captain of Ports and the ports secretary while giving the green light for Delta Corp to bring a 112-metre-long offshore casino into the Mandovi river.RTI documents show that the Captain of Ports expressed misgivings about the entry of such a large vessel into the Mandovi by Delta Corp subsidiary, Delta Pleasure Cruises, and stated that it “may create a navigational hazard due to so many vessel clusters” creating a bottleneck at the position requested”.Then ports secretary and IAS officer P S Reddy also raised a red flag about navigational hazards. In a file noting, Reddy said Goa lacks a policy and clear guidelines for bringing such large vessels into inland water channels.“As there are technical and safety issues involved, I am of the opinion that…technical feasibility needs to be conducted by technical experts to ascertain what is the maximum size of vessels that can be brought into the Zuari, the Mandovi and other Goan inland waters, bearing in mind the navigational safety of the vessels,” Reddy said.The ports department also clearly specified that the length of vessels permitted to operate in Goan waters has been restricted to 90m, though permissions are given to shipyards to build vessels up to 120m for operations in other states or countries.Despite the department’s concerns, Sawant said, “We may convey no objection to the applicants to proceed,” with the replacement of the older MV Royale floatel with the 112-m-long vessel.This prompted citizens acting under the ‘Ponnjekars Against Casinos’ banner to press govt to withdraw the permissions.“We feel that the chief minister’s approval has to be withdrawn. It is not a technical opinion and he has no right to decide on this under the Indian Ports Act. He cannot give technical decisions,” said former CCP corporator, Patricia Pinto.Local residents said that in case of an emergency or disaster, it is the Captain of Ports who will be held responsible.“This boat is bigger than some of the buildings in Panaji. The chief minister has given permissions against the advice and suggestions given by people with technical know-how, such as the secretary of ports and the Captain of Ports,” said AAP Goa president, Valmiki Naik.
