Alina wants Goencho Avaaz to apologise within 48 hrs

Team Herald

VASCO: Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha on Monday demanded apology within 48 hours from Goencho Avaaz for mentioning her name in public failing which she has threatened to take action.

“Goencho Avaaz, at the Public meeting held at the Lohia Maidan in Margao on Friday has accused me of converting 200 sq mts of land in the No Development Zone (NDZ) in the village of Cansaulim. The accusation made against me is false and I have all proof of the same and therefore now I demand a public apology from Goencho Avaaz for its “malicious” intention to “malign” my reputation, failing which, within the next 48 hours I will be forced to take action,” Saldanha said, while addressing a press conference in Upasnagar. “They have made a very serious accusation. Firstly, they said about land bearing survey Nos 85/7 and 76/9 in the village of Cansaulim that belongs to late Matanhy Saldanha. Forms I & XIV have his name on it. I want to clarify that the formulation of Draft of RP 2021 started in 2007 and during this period Matanhy Saldanha was not the MLA of Cortalim Constituency and I was nowhere in the picture,” she said.

She said in July, 2009, the village panchayat of Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim had submitted its ward-wise objections and suggestions to the Draft RP 2021 and in 2011, the notified draft RP 2021 was placed in the public domain and the panchayat and individuals were asked to file their objections and suggestions to the Draft RP 2021. 

“Matanhy Saldanha along with the Village Level Committee namely Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim Civic & Consumer Forum filed its objections and suggestions in December, 2011 and submitted a copy of Draft RP-2021 indicating all the objections and suggestions.  Among the objections filed, very definitely and distinctly, the parking shown in Survey Nos 85/7, and 76/9 and the 10m wide road in Survey No 85/7 in the village of Cansaulim have been cancelled as indicated in the copy of RP 2021 submitted to TCP," Saldanha said. 

"Again, through letter dated December 3, 2011 addressed to the Chief Town Planner, Matanhy Saldanha made further suggestions and very definitely pointed out that all roads marked in the villages of Goa within the No Development Zone under RP-2021 should be erased. He also said that the interior roads in the villages should be 5 mts wide only. Again, in 2015, the then TCP Minister, Francis D’Souza, with an aim to rectify the notified RP 2021, once again asked for objections and suggestions from the public. This time around, as MLA of Cortalim Constituency, I re-submitted the objections and suggestions, which were submitted by late Matanhy Saldanha in 2011,” Saldanha added.

“Not at any point of time did Matanhy or myself or any of the heirs to the ancestral land bearing survey Nos 85/7 and 76/9 in the village of Cansaulim have made any representation requesting that these  areas be included in RP 2021 as settlement nor has anyone applied for Conversion Sanad. Goencho Avaaz, since its members claim to have information, should make it public, who is the proponent for the so-called hotel in our property. I need to know.  I can state very categorically that till date, not a single property of ours has been converted for any purpose, she added.