The Rahejas look like they’re back in Carmona and all set to construct on their 88,000 sq.mts of land – this time all guns blazing after having received a nod from the panchayat. The Rahejas have also made a huge claim of developing the Carambolim lake as a CSR at the cost of Rs 80 lakhs which is 40 kms away from Carmona to construct an 80 plus bungalows mega project in the village. But the mystery remains as to who has given the nod for this CSR and on what basis this nod appears.
The bigger mystery is that since 2013, The Konkan Railway Corporation has been speaking of expanding the track at the Karmali station and as part of their CSR, they plan to develop the Carambolim lake themselves.
The Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC) has embarked on an environment conservation project aimed at attracting more migratory birds to the lake. “As a part of its CSR activities, Konkan Railway has undertaken a project at Goa which will draw more migratory birds to the Carambolim lake and help in the increase of their population. The project would also beautify the area,” said Vaishali Patange, KRC’s chief public relations officer. B P Tayal, KRC’s chairman and managing director, and principal chief conservator of forests, Richard D’Souza had a meeting recently to lay down a road map to attract more winged species to the Carambolim lake. All this was the news of September 06, 2014.
Chief Town Planner, S T Putturaju not wanting to look into the statements of the Rahejas, asserted that the development of the lake should ideally be given to the Konkan Railway authorities and not anyone else since they are familiar with Karmali and its surroundings.
Similarly, Benaulim based activist fighting to conserve the coastal belt, Judith Almeida demands a tender to be shown and the approval of the bio-diversity board be made public and only then she says the Rahejas have the right to make these big statements of claiming to develop Goa’s scarce land.
The question remains as to who passed this proposal as the KRC PRO in Goa, Baban Ghate insists that KRC has not heard of Raheja’s proposal and they have no tie up of any kind with the Rahejas but they are a few weeks away from getting permissions to commence the lake project.
