MARGAO: Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai, while stating that he was not “afraid of the mob” gathered at Lohia Maidan today, reiterated his promise to change the land to its original status if anybody points out that it was illegally done.

“It has become fashionable to name politician like Arvind Kejriwal used to do it in Delhi before till he had to apologise after cases were filed against him,” he said while acknowledging that some politicians were named at the meeting today.

“I have constituted a committee specifically to look into such complaints of land and specially eco sensitive zones that were illegally marked for settlement and the committee will cancel the settlement zone and revert it to the original status,” said Vijai.

When questioned he said it would help if the allegations made at Lohia Maidan were submitted to the Town and Country Planning Department. “The merit of the issue here is that land was illegally converted, tell me where this has happened and I shall change it,” he said.

“Everybody has a right to protest and express their view, but what is important is that the rule of the law must prevail and for that they have to give their observations and complaints in writing,” he said adding that he was willing to take action not only against politicians involved but even institutions.

Vijai pointed out that Ernesto Moniz, who is known to be quite close to the church, is a member of the committee (formed by the TCP minister) and therefore said there should not be a problem for anybody to submit their complaint.

“If the crowd was not present it would only mean that there was something wrong with the church,” he said, commenting on the crowd at the meeting and pointed out that such a crowd was expected as the church all over Goa had urged people to attend the meeting.