Team Herald
PANJIM: Armed with brooms and placards, hundreds of activists and NGO members from across Goa marched on Tuesday to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department office in Patto-Panjim, demanding the resignation of Chief Town Planner (CTP) Rajesh Naik and the cleansing of the corrupt system. Naik has been in the eye of a storm for allegedly signing files for large-scale land conversions of forests, fields and No Development Zones (NDZ).
Police stopped the protesters before they could enter the TCP office, but the massive agitation and sloganeering was reminiscent of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) against the 2011 Regional Plan. The protesters wanted to submit a letter to Naik demanding that he stop attending office immediately.
Addressing the protesters, Goa Foundation Director Claude Alvares said, “We have only one demand – that CTP Rajesh Naik should quit office, because he has brought disgrace not only upon himself but also to the institution of TCP department. He has done greater damage than any previous Chief Town Planner in the State. About 95 per cent of the 45 lakh square metres of zone changes that Naik has approved is within forest land and no development zones.”
Activist Swapnesh Sherlekar of Goencho Awaz, said, “We need to clean the system in Goa and that’s why we started our agitation today, ahead of Gandhi Jayanti. Rajesh Naik has held his position since 2017 and since then, the department has been on a road to degeneration. Naik has been granted a service extension even after retirement and he is destroying Goa. This must end. The overall objective of this protest is to start cleaning the corrupt system.”
Among the protesters were South Goa MP Capt Viriato Fernandes, who said: “We have to name and shame the persons involved in this corruption and destruction of Goa.” Historian Prajal Sakhardande, who was also present, demanded that the sale of Goa should be stopped.
Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) convenor Sabina Martins alleged that the government brought amendments to the TCP Act despite the Regional Plan 2021, which was prepared after discussions at the village panchayat level.
“We have sought an appointment with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to demand the rampant demolition of hills and and construction work being taken up in eco-sensitive areas. As per 72nd and 73rd Constitutional amendments, village panchayats and municipal councils have the right of special planning.”
Meanwhile, a similar meeting on the topic, “Bapu! Will Our Goa Survive?” will be held at Fatorda at 3:30 pm on October 2. Apart from Claude Alvares and Prajal Sakhardande, former Minister Sadanand Mailk, ex-MLA Uday Bhembre and others will address the meeting.
CTP Rajesh Naik has done irreparable
damage to Goa: Claude Alvares
PANJIM: Goa Foundation Director and environmentalist Claude Alvares on Tuesday remarked that Goa won't recover from the damage done by Chief Town Planner (CTP) Rajesh Naik, even after he quits from the post.
Speaking to O Heraldo on the sidelines of the peaceful protest at Patto-Panjim, Alvares said, “Every conversion file is signed by Rajesh Naik. We are paying him to do town planning. We are not paying him to sit at the table and sign death warrant of Regional Plan. We will not recover from the damage he has done to the State even after he resigns and goes. We don’t mind if he has damaged his reputation. But we don’t want him to damage the environment of the State which is our main concern.”
“Anybody comes to damage the environment of the State, they do it for some time. The population rebels. This happened with Regional Plan, SEZ, Nylon 6,6. It has happened with hundreds of projects that had come up. People rebel and throw them out,” he said.
Alvares said that “this was the latest manifestation that you bring in 17(2) 16 B and 39 A of TCP Act. But nothing will help you because the people will not allow you to do so.”
Reiterating that the one-point demand of the protestors is that CTP Rajesh Naik leave the TCP office because he has brought great disgrace to not only to himself, but to the institution of TCP. “What I have seen from the conversions is that Naik had done more damage than any CTP has done to the environment of State. I have seen all the files and they are signed by Naik. No comment is given by him; there is no dissent note by him; he blindly signed.”