Maharashtra industries minister Narayan Rane said last night, that the state government would ask the prime minister to disband the Western Ghats Ecology Experts' Panel which monitors the environment along the Konkan coast, headed by National Advisory Council (NAC) member Madhav Gadgil.
Reiterating his opposition to a Western Ghats Ecology Experts' Panel report, he said that it was a death knell to Konkan's development.
"Madhav Gadgil, who authored the report should have had a dialogue with me instead of making wild allegations against Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan," he told a gathering at the 'Advantage Konkan' meet here last night.
In his speech, Rane took strong exception to Gadgil's statement that the chief minister opposed the report without going through it. Income from tourists visiting Konkan is the only revenue for its development and this fact should always be borne in mind, he said.
Work on the Sindhudurg airport will begin next month and be completed well before for the 2014 general elections, he said.
He said that survey work for a mini-train aimed at Sindhudurg tourists has been completed. A decision has to be taken on whether the Konkan Railway would construct it or if it would be done on a build-operate-transfer basis.
Other projects for Konkan include a Rs700-crore 'sea world' in Malvan, a garment industry in Guhaghar, a port at Vijaydurg at a cost of Rs 4100 crores, the Poladpur road at a cost of Rs4000 crores and an infotech park at Oras, he said.
Earlier too, Rane had rejected Madhav Gadgil's report, which pointed out violations while clearing projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.
