Safety is MEPA's responsibility

Reacting to Pamela Hansen's column, Minister George Pullicino (The Sunday Times, February 19) said that he is against having safety brought under the same umbrella as environment and planning.

MEPA was entrusted with looking after the nation's health when genetically modified organisms became its responsibility.

To whom is the public going to turn when genetically modified seeds that have been planted somewhere contaminated their crop through pollination?

GMO seeds are not supposed to propagate, so that farmers can save some crops for seeds which they can sow the following year. Minister Pullicino does not believe that it is MEPA's responsibility.

Another point: the Xemxija mudslide happened for real, but Mr Pullicino seems to deny the facts by calling for an inquiry. Is he playing for time, hoping that people will forget about it by the time the inquiry is concluded?

We all know what happened: two stop notices were served on the contractors. They ignored them and carried on, which means that the work was illegal.

The logical thing would have been to take the contractors to court. But that did not happen. The contractors and MEPA seem to have been hoping that a building would be up and running, with a permit to follow.

But nature decided otherwise, by undercutting the foundation of the neighbouring block. It seems to me that someone is trying to pass this off as an act of God.

That way the neighbours will not be able to claim for the damage caused.

I find that MEPA is only acting according to the minister's wishes. If he is trying to find someone in MEPA to blame to clear the contractors, he should take all the blame. Safety and planning go hand in hand.

The minister should establish a health and safety executive with powers to enforce an immediate decision. MEPA is responsible for safety and the minister should back it up. Only then will MEPA take the issue seriously.