Team Herald
PANJIM: Claiming that the Old Goa heritage zone has become a garbage zone, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday criticised successive governments for destroying the ancient monuments in the State.
“All successive governments have succeeded in taking safe U-turns on assurances of protection of heritage and have done irreparable damage to our monuments,” AAP convenor Elvis Gomes said in the light of destruction of ancient rocks in the name of beautification of Chandreshwar Bhootnath temple at Chandranath, Parvat in Paroda.
Gomes, along with AAP general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar and locals, accompanied the media to the Old Goa heritage precincts which had mounds of garbage emanating foul stench within 100 metres of the world heritage monuments. He also took on the government for having cheated Goans on the plans to develop Old Goa heritage site through a master plan.
“Newspaper archives will show successive Governments talking about ‘Master plan for Old Goa’. But when it comes to actual implementation, they get fettered by real estate agents and builders who get priority. The place is full of garbage and vendors grow by the day,” Gomes said.
Elaborating he said that the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, were disregarded and even Central government agencies such as ASI and the National Monuments Authority had colluded with State officials to chew Old Goa and other Goan heritage sites to their last bones.
“Why is the Regional Plan not clear on Old Goa and why have successive governments hesitated on demarcation of 100 metres and 300 metres exclusion zones around the protected monuments? Gomes asked. He said that RP 21 was not in conformity with the requirements of the National Monuments Protection Authority and it was intentionally done to suit the real estate and builders. He demanded that the government have a separate Authority for Old Goa and other heritage sites of Goa on the lines of Hampi Management Authority.
Camera persons accompanying the AAP delegation had a glimpse of a dump of rotting garbage ironically near a poster displaying Swachh Bharat with the slogan ‘Clean Bharat, Clean Goa’.
Local residents claimed that garbage dumping had reached menacing proportions and the panchayat was causing further damage to the environment by using public money.
