Panaji (Goa) Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today said that he is not in favour of establishing a circuit bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Goa.

The statement comes even as the Bombay High Court at Goa has stressed upon setting up NGT circuit bench, considering the number of litigations filed from Goa before the Pune bench.

 “Personally, I am not in favour of setting circuit bench of NGT in Goa. It is not possible,” Parrikar said.

Chief Minister said that government has already made its stand clear that Pune was ‘proving to be logistically inconvenient and a significant financial strain on the public exchequer of the state of Goa’.

“I still stand by it. Pune is not convenient at all,” he commented.

Parrikar, however, refused to comment on whether Government will challenge High Court decision that stayed Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) decision to transfer Goa cases from NGT Pune bench to New Delhi.