the goan I network
Panaji
Goencho Avaaz expressed shock on Saturday that despite massive protests and widespread anger against multi-housing projects and other speculative changes in land use, the government remained preoccupied with the profits of builders and were unmindful of the rampant destruction of Goa.
The activist group criticised TCP Minister Vijay Sardessai’s concept of Transferrable Development Rights (TDR) which they called “another attempt to help builders construct bigger and higher buildings and make more profits from the destruction of Goa, displacement of Goans and murder of Goenkarponn.”
Goencho Avaaz made it clear to the politicians and builders that there were no ‘development rights’ over land, for land use was placed in the domain of the gram sabhas by the Indian Constitution. “The land use determined by the local communities is final and binding on all, including the government,” explained co-convenor of GA, Capt Viriato Fernandes.
“The people have already decided “Xet asa tem Xet, Bhatt asa tem Bhatt, Rann asa tem Rann,” said Fernandes explained that the simple Regional Plan desired by the wise local communities did not require complex, unintelligible explanations like those given by the government.
GA went on to say that the “development” that the government was planning would destroy Goa for future generations even before they were born.
Fernandes also spoke of Sardessai’s proposal of “accommodation reservation,” saying that the proposal aimed at defeating the new Land Acquisition Act, which was pro-people and pro-environment, and would instead hand over Goan lands to private companies without any Social Impact assessment or Gram Sabha approvals.
Goencho Avaaz demanded that the government complied with the unanimous demands of Goans that only individual/family homes and village schools and hospitals be permitted until 2031, and that the government provide financial compensation to land owners for preservation of green areas from the taxes collected from the hotels, builders, industries and mining companies in the past.
