Team Herald
PANJIM: Tuesday’s broom march by hundreds of activists demanding the resignation of chief town planner (CTP) Rajesh Naik snowballed into bigger protests on Gandhi Jayanti, with agitators gathering at different locations across Goa to raise their voice against rampant land conversion in the Swtate.
Protests were organised by residents and civil society at Old Goa, Chopdem, Fatorda and Chinchinim, where the speakers appealed to the people to remain united against arbitrary changes in land use regulations to protect the identity and lands of Goa.
What has angered the people is indiscriminate hill demolition and massive land conversion by using amendment to Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act.
Old Goa residents staged a dharna and demanded a master plan with demarcation of buffer zone of national and State monuments on Regional Plan 2021 at Old Goa before the decennial exposition of St Francis Xavier starts. They also demanded permanent closure of the road access between the Basilica of Bom Jesus and Se Cathedral so that it becomes one unit.
The protestors sternly opposed 12 projects approved within the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Some of these projects were four farm houses with 10 bedrooms each, floating jetties and proposed Sagarmala Jetty, illegal bungalows and other constructions, heritage interpretation centre, solid waste management plant, chocolate exhibition centre, IBP laterite resort, land conversions and construction of helipad.
The protestors stated that Old Goa village was already facing increased traffic congestion, noise and air pollution and restricted mobility.
This was hampering essential services like fire and emergency and ambulance access and expanding settlement areas will exacerbate these issues. Alzira Dias, John Rebello, Seby Fernandes, Glen Cabral, Xencor Polgi, Rama Kankonkar and others addressed the meeting at Old Goa.
A large number of people attended a public meeting convened by the Agarwada-Chopdem Nagrik Samiti, where the speakers slammed the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department for converting 3.86 lakh sq mts of land into settlement last year. The biggest question raised was how the village, which managed to exist within 2.85 lakh sq mts for far, needed a 136 per cent increase in its settlement within one and half years. These land changes included shifting NDZs, orchard and natural cover to settlement areas and nearly two lakhs sq mts of land was classified as settlement by a single application submitted by Delhi-based real estate companies.
The Opposition Congress Party president Amit Patkar declared that the Congress will scrap all anti-TCP amendments, if voted back to power. “Congress Party after coming to power will scrap all anti-Goa amendments including Sections 17-2 and 39-A of TCP Act, which cause massive land conversions, promote hill cuttings and rampant illegal sale of lands,” he said.
In his address, activist Swapnesh Sherlekar alleged that Section 17 (2) and 39 A of TCP Act was used to force development onto unsuspecting villages like Chopdem.
"The ‘pseudo-development cancer' is spreading from village to village, destroying Goa's heritage and environment," he said.
Sherlekar further stated that within a year the government under the pretense of ‘corrections’ added 3.86 lakh sq mts of settlement land which was more than doubling the villages' settlement size with a stroke of a pen.
The local villagers also recalled how 11 years ago they had dismantled a boundary wall built by a developer from Delhi after he ignored the stop-work order. They also vowed to continue their protest till the government cancels land conversions and protects the village from land mafia.
Others who addressed the meeting were Kishor Naik Gaonkar, Rajan Ghate, Adv Prasad Shahpurkar, Sadanand Vaingankar, former Mandrem sarpanch Prashant Naik and deputy sarpanch Tara Hadfadkar, Agarwada-Chopdem panchayat member Hemant Chopdekar, Bhagirath Gaonkar and Deepali Lingudkar and others.
At Chinchinim, hundreds of villagers protested against the rampant land conversions and environmental destruction and demanded formulation of a new Regional Plan for the State, with public participation.
The speakers opposed the amendments to the TCP Act alleging that it was done to convert land for mega projects. At Fatorda, the meeting resolved that all Goans should be alert to prevent all kinds of frauds such as land frauds besides striving for a complete ban on conversion and sale of agricultural land including land under Command Areas.