No resort on this island!
The picturesque Konko Island at Palolem Beach is the jewel in that picturesque beach’s crown. Part of its magic is that it is uninhabited, completely wild, is a nesting place for rare birds that shun habitation like the White Bellied Sea Eagle, and for other wildlife.
From decades, hoteliers and builders have laid their evil eye on this marvel of nature. Now, once again, new rumours are afoot that developers are planning to set up a resort on the island. But local residents are fiercely protective of their patrimony, and it is not at all surprising that they have vowed not to allow anyone to touch their island. According to them, it protects their beach and village from natural disasters.
A wooded hillock 68,000 sq metres in size, the island is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel that can be waded across at low tide. It originally belonged to a local ‘bhatkar’, who reportedly sold it to a Delhi-based entrepreneur for a paltry Rs 60 lakh. Now, this absentee owner is trying to make an enormous profit on his small investment, as big time players in real estate, politicians and film stars are all vying to buy it and set up a resort.
What has opened the doors to development on the island is the new draft CRZ rules made public just a few days ago, which open up areas between 200 and 500 metres from the high tide line for so-called restricted development by the hospitality industry. But that is not the only provision which Konko’s would-be developers are looking at. They also seek to misuse the specific exception for Goa in the rules, which allows housing structures in the CRZ area to be rebuilt.
There is a tiny structure on the island that was originally used for storing coconuts. It is a small, single room, in ruins. Somewhere along the way, it mysteriously acquired a house number, ever though nobody ever stayed there. Probably, it was an exercise in trying to set up a resort. Now, the new developers want to set up a resort by ‘rebuilding’ what they will claim is an ‘old house’. If Union Minister Jairam Ramesh needs any evidence that the provisions in his new CRZ draft are prone to misuse, he only has to look at this case. The exception has been made for fisherfolk, but the ones who will take maximum advantage of it are big builders.
Local residents, who must be congratulated for their vigilance in this matter, have demanded that the government should acquire this island and leave it undisturbed for posterity, banning any sort of development that could disturb its natural state. If the government cannot afford it, it can possibly do a deal with a Britisher who had offered in 2007 to buy it and leave it undisturbed. It has a similar agreement with a British foundation, for restoring the Reis Magos fort. How about keeping this one for nature?
Crossing the line?
Former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan has a sterling reputation for probity and public service. But in his latest action, of stating that eight of the 16 former Chief Justices of India were “definitely corrupt”, he seems to have crossed the line.
Judicial probity is a burning issue in India today; a grave concern in a country where the other two pillars of democracy – the Legislature and the Executive – are in dire straits. This is the one institution that the public still has faith in.
To frontally assault its highest functionaries on the basis of what he was apparently “told” by two former Chief Justices is not correct. The Indian Judiciary deserves better than that.
