A Rs 1.5 crore museum on a hill maysound pretty lofty. No one however said that to the former Chief MinisterDigambar Kamat. During his tenure the GTDC sanctioned the setting up of an openmuseum on the Chandreshwar Bhootnath hill.
“In August last year Digambar Kamatlaunched the beautification of the hilltop temple. In October 2011, Goa Tourismtransferred Rs one crore to GTDC to build an outdoor museum at the Chandreswartemple hilltop” stated Ganesh Theli, Assistant Planner, Goa Tourism.
A year later however, despiteclaims by the Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar that work was in progress, thereis no sign of the museum at the temple site. The temple priest at Paroda gets angry when asked about the museum. The plaque in fact has been removed from thefoundation stone and according to the priest the only thing being constructedis a small prayer room.
Speaking to The Goan theGTDC Engineer in charge of construction on the site, Sachin Kore said that N Khanolkar Constructions had wonthe job following a tender but was now delayed due to some technicaldifficulties. Mr N Khanolkar stated that transporting material up the hill wasa problem and several of his labourers had suffered injuries while doing so.The current GTDC Chairman Nilesh Cabral who took over from Shyam Satardekarmaintains that Goa Tourism had released Rs 78 lakhs and not Rs 1 crore. Thismoney was now being diverted to construct the retaining wall at the temple siteto prevent landslides. Cabral said “ I don’t want to be drawn into this sincethis happened before I took over."
Locals point out that constructionof the retaining wall is being done with cobble stone cut from the hill. Thishas angered some villagers who live on the foothills. They claim this hasresulted in an increase in the number of landslides this monsoon.
Theli acknowledged that there wasno museum work being undertaken at the temple and that there was somethingsuspicious going on at the end of the GTDC. He claimed that queries sent by GoaTourism on various occasions had not been answered by the officials.
