the goan I network
MARGAO
Ahead of the four-day Goa Heritage Festival mooted by Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai in and around the Old Market area, city-based cardiologist Dr Francisco Colaco has threatened to go from house to house to convince everyone to boycott the festival and show disapproval of the extravaganza and also to protest over SGPDA’s decision to convert the heritage area around the Holy Spirit Church into a C2 commercial zone.
Saying that the residents staying around the Holy Spirit area will not sit quiet when their heritage is sought to be destroyed by the SGPDA, Dr Colaco said the residents will move the High Court with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to challenge the PDA decision.
Addressing the media, Dr Colaco said he had initially planned to stage the protest against the heritage festival by showing black flags and also sit on a day-long hunger strike, but later decided to move house to house with a plea to boycott it and show disapproval over the SGPDA’s decision to change the heritage area into a commercial zone.
“They are bent on destroying not only the heritage of Old Market, but the whole of Margao. To add insult to injury, they have now decided to hold the heritage festival. Has TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai so much love for heritage? No, he is a destroyer of heritage,” he said.
Saying the change in zone is a big issue for the residents staying around the Ganganelli Rebello Road, which is part of the heritage zone, he said the residents have already lodged their objections to conversion of the zone and to the proposed 10-meter road around the Holy Spirit Church.
“We have come to know that in our heritage zone, conversion has been allowed for two high rise buildings. Just imagine a C2 zone in a heritage area without any notice and without taking the local residents into consideration,” he said, adding “by converting one or two properties as commercial zones in a heritage zone, the PDA has violated the provision of the TCP Act.”
Asserting that the zone changes were not shown in the draft plan shown to the public, he said, “The PDA can only invite objections to the changes to the draft ODP. But, the PDA has totally violated the provisions of the Act by changing the zones without taking us into consideration.”
To make matters worse, Dr Colaco said the six-metre road in front of his house has been fraudulently shown as a 10-metre road. He fears that the zone changes will totally change the demography of the place where citizens had lived peacefully abiding to each and every rule.
“If they want to have a 10-metre road, it will only chop our compound walls and houses and also structures of the 400 year old Church to make way for it,” he said, while and added that Sardesai is out to throw dust in people’s eyes by planning to name a road after renowned musician Chris Perry.
Dr Colaco recalled that he in the past urged the Margao civic body to name the road after Perry, but the proposal was kept in cold storage citing legal issues.
