the goan I network
PANAJI
After decades of holding out, Panaji’s prestigious Miramar beach and the community residing around it may soon face the inevitability of succumbing to the ‘forces of development’ as work is being carried out bang on its white sands under a thick veil of secrecy with no clarity on its details.
Tin and fiber sheets have been erected on the periphery of an approximately 500-plus square meter area of the beach’s sands apparently by the contractor engaged for the job by the Imagine Panaji Smart City Corporation (IPSCCL).
Officials of the IPSCCL were unwilling to come on record about what the plans are, although one official claimed it has received the nod of the Goa Coastal Zone
Management Authority to execute the work.
There is also no clarity whether the work is part of the plan of the State and Central governments to achieve Blue Flag Certification for the prestigious beach. Miramar was among a list of 13 beaches from across the country nominated for the certification by the Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
Public hearings mandated by environment laws were held in 2018-19 and had witnessed vociferous opposition to the development plans on the beach, particularly from the fishing community who have made the nearly 2-kilometer stretch between Miramar and Caranzalem their abode for several generations.
The Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) a collective of traditional Goan fishermen from across the State had led the resistance to the beach development plans of the government.
Sources in the IPSCDCL said the proposal is being executed under the Centre’s AMRUT scheme.
Elsewhere, a couple of hundred meters away from the site, the State government’s grandiose proposal to build a ‘spectacle’ of a memorial for former chief minister the late Manohar Parrikar on a piece of land hugging the beach’s sands gained wings about a fortnight ago. Greater Panaji Planning and Development Authority (GPPDA) headed by Panaji MLA, Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate gave its nod on March 6 for the ‘development plans’ on the plot of land where the ‘Smriti Sthal’ of the former chief minister is proposed to be built.
