Team Herald
MARGAO: Accusing the BJP government of seeking to finish off tourism in Goa with the Coastal Zone Regulation amendment, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said the party was on a money making spree to collect funds for the ensuing elections.
Briefing media persons, AAP leader Siddharth Karapurkar said reducing the no development zone to 50 mts from the High Tide Line will deal a killer blow to tourism in Goa as tourists come here to enjoy the pristine beaches. “It is akin to killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said.
“The corporate sector will now encroach on the beaches and Goa will become like Bombay where no beach will be available and thus tourists who come to Goa for the beaches will stop coming,” he said adding that his party will oppose the amendment by even moving the courts, if necessary.
Accusing the government of being on a money making spree, he said that Section 16B of the Town and Country Planning Act and the new committee appointed with regards to private forests are means of collecting money.
Pointing out that one lakh square metre of land by the side of the main road at Sancoale has been converted to settlement from orchard zone that it was earlier, he said Section 16B is not to correct mistakes made by the department but only to do what the highest bidder wants.
He said the sloppy land that had thick trees growing making it look like a forest has now suddenly been converted to settlement zone although never earlier was it marked as settlement and was always shown as orchard land.
Karapurkar also said the new committee constituted to review the private forest land is nothing but a mean of derecognizing private forest for those who are willing to pay for the change. He pointed out that the private forests in Goa were identified by a committee constituted following Supreme Court directions.
Pointing out that Forests give us oxygen, improve the water table and its wood can be used for timber, he said to satisfy the greed of some people, the private forests are now being derecognized and “we shall be left with barren land.”
