GCZMA inspection at controversial Varca site blocked by developer

Social activist Sohail Furtado and Varca villagers at the mega hotel resort site for the scheduled inspection.

MARGAO
The proposed site inspection of the controversial hotel resort project at Varca scheduled on Wednesday could not take place after the project management claimed they received no correspondence from the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) on the inspection.
The GCZMA officials, who had turned up for the inspection, along with the beleaguered villagers waging a battle against the project over a host of illegalities, conducted the inspection from outside the project site.
The villagers, led by social activist Sohail Furtado, had lodged a complaint with the GCZMA, suspecting CRZ violation and damage to sand dunes at the project site.
In his complaint, Furtado had stated that villagers had found a JCB taken into the CRZ property and was working in the property to clear areas and also cut trees. “We strongly suspect that in the process, sand dunes may have been damaged, which is a grave environmental concern and a direct violation of CRZ norms,” he stated.
Given the severity of the issue and the potential irreversible damage to the fragile coastal ecosystem, Furtado had requested the GCZMA to conduct an urgent inspection of the said site on priority, ascertain if sand dunes or other CRZ features have been destroyed or disturbed, and to take strict and necessary action against the offenders as per the law.
Furtado later told the media that the villagers have asked for an inspection of the mega resort site, but the inspection could not take place because the GCZMA did not intimate the party about the same.
He, however, said the villagers took the GCZMA team towards the beachside to show them the fencing erected right on the beach, the alleged tampering of a sand dune and vegetation, including mangroves, at the site.