MARGAO
Cavelossim villagers on Friday demanded immediate removal of barricading erected around a property using steel pillars and metal sheets, alleging violation of CRZ norms. They also demanded that the proposed wellness project be scrapped.
The villagers urged the Cavelossim panchayat to take the show-cause notice-cum-stop-work order issued to the property owner to its logical conclusion by removing the fencing and restoring the land.
The demand came a day after a joint inspection of the property failed when the security guard and others questioned the entry of officials and villagers into the premises.
Cavelossim parish priest Fr Eusico Pereira vowed to support the villagers in opposing the project to protect the fragile environment. “This is a sensitive area, which is surrounded by the sea on the west and River Sal in the east. The water table is very high. But projects are proposed in these sensitive areas by throwing environmental norms to the winds. What has happened in the past cannot be allowed again in our village,” he said.
Pereira appealed to the landowner and Chief Minister not to allow environmental degradation and demanded that the project be scrapped.
“The owner has come and met me and a wellness centre with 50 rooms is being proposed in the area. A wellness centre can come up anywhere. They are trying to misguide the people by calling it wellness tourism. My stand is clear that no project should come up on the property,” he said.
Questioning whether the fencing was bio-fencing or steel-sheet barricading, Pereira said authorities should remove it if permission had been granted only for bio-fencing.
Paul Lobo urged the panchayat and Sarpanch Dixon Vaz to act against the fencing, while activist Sohail Furtado called for an immediate inspection to assess possible damage to a sand dune.
Cavelossim Biodiversity Management Committee chairperson Roy Barretto and Concessai Vaz also addressed the media.
