PANAJI
Former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice (Retd) Ferdino Rebello, whose call for a people’s movement to stop the “destruction of Goa” through rampant land conversions and hill cutting, gained traction across the State, has now called for a meeting on January 6 at the Institute Menezes Braganza in the capital city.
To take the idea forward, Rebello said the meeting at 3.30 pm will discuss a draft People’s Charter prepared by him.
The charter seeks to unite Goans against wholesale land sales, illegal hill cutting, and unchecked development.
“Your voices reflected the collective anguish we all carry for our homeland,” he wrote in his appeal on Friday which urged Goans to stand together to safeguard the State for future generations.
The call has now received strong backing from the Opposition. Congress, Goa Forward, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and Revolutionary Goans (RG) have all voiced support.
AAP MLA Venzy Viegas and RG MLA Viresh Borkar said Goa’s culture and environment were being degraded in the name of development.
“Justice Rebello’s call is right. If everyone supports it, a mass movement will emerge quickly,” they said.
State Congress president Amit Patkar also endorsed the initiative. He declared that if a people’s movement is formed to fight CRZ violations, mountain felling, and the casinos in Mandovi, the Congress party would join “with strength.”
Rebello’s intervention has added weight to long-standing concerns raised by environmentalists: large-scale land conversions, particularly in coastal and hilly areas.
The January 6 meeting could likely give legs to Rebello's idea of a movement with expected participation from activists, lawyers, students, and ordinary citizens.
Rebello, on his part, framed the movement as a moral duty saying: “We must safeguard Goa for our children and grandchildren,” he said, urging Goans to act as “proud, vigilant citizens committed to preserving the soul of our beloved Goa.”
With Opposition parties now on board, the push for a united people’s movement has gained political heft. The coming week could mark the launch of a new grassroots campaign to reclaim Goa’s environment from unbridled development much on the lines of the 'Goa Bachao Abhiyan' agitation nearly two decades ago.
