The clock is ticking for many residents of Ward No. 4 Girkarwado in Aram-bol Village Panchayat, as their future with regards to their 'structures' mains uncertain with the directive of the High Court re-of Bombay at Goa serving as a pause and not an end. The court has directed Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) and the Additional Director of Panchayats to finally act within six months.
After directing the GCZ-MA to "conclude all these 100 proceedings within a period of six months," the High Court on September 2, 2025 disposed of the PIL (Suo Motu) No. 3 of 2023 with Misc Application No 1002 of 2024 and Misc. Ap-plication No 3045 of 2024.
Justices Bharati Dangra and Nivedita P Mehta di-rected the Panchayat that, "if any appeals are filed before the appellate forum, ie. Additional Director of Panchayats, the details of some of which are to be found in our order dated 28.08.2024 and apart from this there are some other appeals which are pending that shall be disposed of within the same time line, i.e. within a period of six months from today."
All structures within 200 metres of the High Tide line (HTL) in Girkawado have come under the CRZ scan-ner, whilst other properties, in other wards of the panchayat, have managed to get off.
The ground reality in Girkarwado is a stark contrast to the legal pro-nouncements. The resi dents of Ward No. 4 feel they are collateral damage in a fight they never started.
"The High Court got the entire ward under its scru-tiny because they noticed the former sarpanch was lying. In the bargain, many, who have little understand-ing of the law, were dragged in," alleges ward panch Pra-joy Fernandes.
"We are paying the price for the lies of one individu-al," added Fernandes, trying to justify why only houses in his ward have been sig naled out.
"A few families did build extra rooms hoping to earn some money by giv-ing them out to foreigners during the season. Every-
one wants to make a little more money but even that is now stopped," admitted Fernandes.
For 61-year-old Santan. Rodrigues, the recent court decision was a stay of exe-cution. "I just have this plot of land and an incapacitated wife to look after. With mea-gre earnings, I was depend-ing on the goodwill of some villagers to defend myself in the High Court. These past few years have been bad," said a shell-shocked Rodrigues. For Rodrigues, who earns his living helping fishermen, the decision has provided him with addi-tional time to look after his incapacitated wife. "I have to do everything including maintaining her hygiene. This house was built by my parents on their own land and I was shocked when I was told that it needed to be demolished.