PANJIM: Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte admitted that the project file of the facilitation centre at Old Goa was not submitted to the Se-Old Goa Panchayat. Earlier, they had said they had got all the permissions. Herald Media asked people, since Se-Old Goa Panchayat approval was not taken, should the Tourism project be scrapped? Here are the responses. …..
There is no doubt that the project should be scrapped. This project should not go ahead till a Master Plan for the village of Old Goa is prepared to save this prestigious UNESCO site. Unless there is a proper plan, proper regulated zones in a proper plan, forget this project, no construction should be permitted. The Chief Minister should intervene and say that all construction should be frozen till a Master plan is put in place and this site is preserved. The Tourism Minister wants to file a police complaint to see who started the Mall proposal. I challenge him to a debate on this topic. I wonder whether he understand the meaning of a mall.
Trajano D’Mello, Political Commentator
It is very sad to tell that our Goans do not have faith in the government. They are even scared of the government’s shadow, because their past record is so bad, they have purchased Goan lands at 25 paise and sold it for crores of rupees to private parties. So many lands all over Goa have been finished. Now they have reached Se-Old Goa. Now they want to put up a project there. All this is done in the name of Goans and Goa. But over a period of time there is metamorphosis. They change. No project whatsoever should be allowed to come up at Old Goa.
Anthony D’ Silva, Social Activist
The tourism department project at Old Goa should be definitely scrapped. Old Goa is a world heritage UNESCO site. And inorder to protect this world heritage site, no mega or any other project should be allowed to come up there. If we lose this world heritage status, we will never be able to retrieve it. Then all the religious and other monuments will be finished. Because of this reason, we, all the stakeholders, including the village panchayat and religious bodies, and Goans demand a well planned Master Plan.
Mariano Ferrrao, Social Activist