TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In a bid to conserve protected monuments and ancient records, NGO Save Old Goa Action Committee has demanded that the State government prepare a heritage master plan for the world heritage site and include it in the Regional Plan 2021.
The master plan, it said, should also ensure that all illegal structures are relocated and the road between the Basilica of Bom Jesus and Se Catedral should be permanently closed for vehicular traffic.
“The whole area is an archaeological site with ruins and remains, identified and unidentified of which only 14 are centrally protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India while eight are with the State Directorate of Archives and Archaeology,” Coordinator Peter Viegas told reporters at a briefing on Friday.
He said that these monuments cover only a small area, while others have been left out, making it highly vulnerable to damage. He added that international bodies under the UNESCO indicated that the entire site should be covered under World Heritage designation rather than just individual monuments, as is the case now.
“The site is being damaged irreversibly with the mushrooming of construction activity,” Viegas said.
and added that demands for a master plan put before Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and other concerned agencies have borne no fruit as yet.
Their demand also included demarcating 14 Archaeological Survey of India protected monuments, eight State protected monuments, 18 unprotected and historic records which revealed underground heritage sites, identifying 100 meter protected and further 200 mtrs regulated zone, and including these in RP 2021. They have also demanded that liquor outlets should be banned within 100 meters of the heritage monuments, maintaining cleanliness and that no kiosk or other illegal activities would operate after the Exposition of St Francis Xavier’s relics concludes this Sunday.
