MARGAO: Through an educative video sent to Oscar-winning Telgu Superstar Ram Charan, several social media users have informed him about the controversial Morjim mega project facing stiff opposition from all quarters and have warned him not to betray his fans in this way by destroying the plateau. Charan film ‘RRR’ won this year’s Oscar for the best original song ‘Natu Natu’.
Ram Charan is purported to be connected to the controversial Morjim mega project where 64,000 square metres of land has been converted into a settlement. The social media users have sent a viral video to the actor informing him about the facts of the case, giving him the benefit of the doubt that M/s Gangareddy Infra Private Limited may have misled him.
Incidentally, the video was created by Swapnesh Sherlekar, who is one of the three public-spirited Goans who have filed a (Public Interest Litigation) PIL writ petition before the High Court (HC) praying to strike down Section 17 and Sub-Section 2 of Goa TCP Act, 1974.
It may be recalled that the HC had recently issued notices to the State government and the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department in connection with this PIL while the court had also impleaded two parties – M/s Gangareddy Infra Private Limited and Konidela Ramcharan Tej (a), Ram Charan’s official name, as respondents.
Through this social media campaign, although it is addressed to the actor, awareness was created about all the recent developments in the case with visuals of the map of the area also shown to demonstrate how the project could cause large-scale environmental destruction and how the manner in which permissions were granted for the project, if not challenged, will set a dangerous precedent
for similar projects in the future.
In this case, the application was cleared within three weeks and the rezoning of such a massive area of orchard as a ‘settlement’ found no ecological, environmental or town planning justification. The plots are also not adjacent to any settlement, and they fall between nature reserves and no-development slopes.
Both these impleaders had applied to the TCP in March 2023 under Section 17, Sub-Section 2 of the TCP Act for correction of inconsistent incoherent zoning provisions in the Regional Plan 2021 and changed it from Orchard Zone to Settlement Zone at Morjim.
The petitioners have also prayed that the Chief Town Planner (CTP) be directed to immediately inspect the properties at Morjim, where huge strata of land admeasuring 64,000 square metres have been converted from Orchard to Settlement and to submit the report to the Court.
The petitioners have stated that despite their complaints to the government to remove the illegal road and to initiate action as per law, the government authorities granted permissions for the construction of farmhouses considering the illegality-constructed road as the right of way for those project sites.
The Court said that another petition filed by Goa Foundation (GF) will be clubbed and will be heard on July 24.
Several organisations like GF and Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) have condemned the seven large-scale ad hoc zoning changes in the Regional Plan 2021 in favour of M/s Gangareddy Infra Private Ltd in Morjim.
They have said that the changes have been effected under the pretext of being ‘errors’ but that however, no errors can be found in RP 2021 in this context for this area.
