Team Herald
MAPUSA: Under the banner of ‘Save Old Goa Heritage’, villagers of Calangute held a peaceful protest march on Tuesday demanding demolition of illegal structure at Old Goa.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Parish Priest of Calangute Fr Polly Lobo said, “We held a rally to raise our voice against illegal structures which have come up at Old Goa and need to be demolished. Old Goa is a heritage site and we condemn this act of the government which is wrong. We expect our voice will reach the government and hope it will take necessary steps towards it. We want the authorities to demolish the structure.”
Premanand Diukar, social activist, said, “This rally is to condemn the government because without any legality the structure is come up by manipulating. Any kind of construction is not allowed on this particular site. We demand the government authorities to raze the structure. We extend our support to this protest.”
“We doubt whether the government is planning to capture all such monuments including the World Heritage Site at Old Goa and destroy the sacred places and the unity of Goa. We appeal to the people of Goa to unite and fight for this because if we remain quiet then we will lose our Goemkarponn,” a protester said.
Mahesh Dattaram Nayak said, “The Chief Town Planner has acted in violation of the high court order which states that chief town planner should have had a site inspection and report it and issue a memoranda. Only then he can issue the permissions. Revoking the licence will not solve the issue. Chief town planner and town planners under the CCS & CCA rules should be dismissed as they are unfit to become government servants.”
“90 per cent occupancy certificates are issued fraudulently by taking commissions in percentages. Similar situation is of panchayats. All these officials need to be dismissed,” Nayak charged.
