Team Herald
PANJIM: Residents of Dona Paula and the local fishing community continued to protest the ongoing construction work at Vainguinim beach by a private hotel and have threatened to sit on the beach until action is taken against the same.
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While the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) conducted an inspection and said the work underway was in accordance with the permissions they had granted for the repairs of a linear wall in consultation with the Water Resources Department (WRD), locals have decided to challenge the same.
Incidentally, Goa Foundation Director, Claude Alvares, who had organised a symbolic function in the past at the same beach regarding the public’s right of access to it, also reacted to the ongoing developments.
“The use of a JCB for work on the beach in front of the hotel is simply atrocious. This is a public beach. It belongs to the public. The public has a right to object if it perceives gross damage to the beach. The beach does not belong to the GCZMA to destroy. Nowhere in the so-called permission is the use of a bulldozer/JCB permitted. There is a district magistrate’s order explicitly forbidding movement of any motorised vehicle on any of the beaches of Goa. I am glad people have protested,” said Claude.
The locals who submitted memorandums to various departments on Wednesday also spoke to the stakeholders including the Taleigao Panchayat. Following which, a decision has been taken for conducting a joint inspection of the work in the coming days in the presence of GCZMA, the pancahayat, the hotel’s representatives the local fishermen body and the Vainguinim Valley Residents Association (VVRA).
In their memorandums, VVRA said the residents had witnessed digging up of the beach with a JCB, building of a platform 10 metres long, from and along the boundary and retaining wall of the hotel and dumping of rubble along the beach.
In the memorandum, they termed it an encroachment of the beach which is public property and have demanded for immediate demolition of the same with restoration of the beach to its original natural state.
The locals have also pointed out that the permission only allows repairs to be done with eco-friendly material and not cement and mortar and not for demolishing and rebuilding with concrete.
They also pointed out that no NOC or permission had been given by the panchayat.
