THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA
Calangute locals have rejected plans to construct the‘Jesus Retreat Centre’ on the biodiversity-rich Baga hill.
According to the locals, none of the villagers or eventhe Calangute church was taken into confidence about the construction of theretreat centre.
“The committee members of the Calangute church areneither able to understand the need for such a centre nor the meaning of such asetup. We have not been consulted on the need for a ‘Jesus Retreat Centre’ andtherefore, we do not understand the intention of the government behind such anecologically damaging idea.”
“We are self-sufficient in what we have and thereforekeeping in mind the environment that needs to be preserved for our futuregenerations, we unanimously resolve not to support this construction,” said aresolution adopted by the locals who attended a meeting called by the SocialAction Cell at the St Alex Church, Calangute.
The Calangute Parish Priest Fr Polly Lobo was alsopresent for the meeting.
The president of the NGO Calangute Constituency Forum,Premanand Diukar, who is also a member of the Social Action Cell informed thevillagers that the government has notified and proposed a ‘Jesus RetreatCentre’ to be built in survey no 253/2 of Calangute village, which is on Bagahill.
He further stated that information accessed by him hasfound that the land belongs to the communidade of Calangute and falls withinthe no development zone (NDZ).
Parish Priest Fr Polly Lobo informed the villagers thatthe plan of building the retreat centre was neither discussed with the parishnor was the consent of the people taken.
He said any construction on the hill will destroy theenvironment and urged the people to come forward to protect the hills andagriculture fields in the village.
The attorney of Calangute communidade Anthony D’Souza,who was also present in the meeting, tried to convince the people about thedevelopment of the Baga hill.
He said the land did not belong to communidade, as form I& IV was in the name of government. But he was caught off guard when alocal questioned how come the communidade filed an application in NGPDA askingfor change of zone of the property if it did not belong to them.
The attorney tried to wriggle out of the situation,stating that the government had cheated them and that is why they had to filethe application for change of zone.
But villagers were not ready to buy the attorney’sarguments. Most felt that the idea of the Jesus Retreat Centre was to alloweasy access to builders who have purchased land in the area.
Diukar informed that the attorney was a chairman of theNGPDA sub-committee where the communidade has filed an application forconversion of large tracts of land on Baga hill.
“An area of 12,500 sq mtrs is marked for ‘Jesus RetreatCentre’ in a plot survey no 253/2 which has been approved by the authorities onthe recommendation of the sub-committee where the attorney is the chairman. Wefind it’s a big scam,” Diukar said.
