UNITED VOICE: Villagers, activists, and supporters from across Goa at the public meeting in Chimbel on Sunday. Captured by : Narayan Pissurlenkar
PANAJI
The fight against the Tourism Department’s Unity Mall project in Chimbel is heating up. Villagers, activists, and supporters from across Goa packed a public meeting on Sunday, vowing to keep up their chain hunger strike until the project is scrapped.
The protest entered its seventh day where slogans of “We don’t want Unity Mall” rang out as villagers and those gathered passed a resolution to submit objections to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) and the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department.
Protesters warned that they will escalate their agitation if the government refuses to withdraw the project.
Goa's political Opposition also joined in the protest on Sunday. Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, legislators Carlos Alvares-Ferreira of Congress and Viresh Borkar of RGP, besides AAP's senior leader Amit Palekar were prominent in the agitating crowd.
Construction of the controversial project has already hit a roadblock. The North Goa Principal District Court issued an interim stay, halting all work until January 8. Legal challenges and mounting public opposition have stalled the project in its early phase.
The Chimbel Village Panchayat has joined residents and activists in opposing the mall. Their concerns are clear: environment, livelihoods, and heritage.
The site sits dangerously close to Toyyar Lake, an ecologically sensitive wetland. Environmentalists say construction threatens the lake’s hydrology and biodiversity.
The land earmarked for the mall also includes agricultural and forest plots used for generations by the local tribal communities.
Protesters said, the project will destroy farming, displace families, and erase ancestral ties to the land.
Political leaders cutting across party lines stood with the villagers. Alemao accused the BJP government of “selling Goa’s environment, culture and land to big industrialists in Delhi.”
MLA Viresh Borkar recalled opposing the project in the Assembly and pledged to continue fighting “projects harmful to the environment.”
Carlos Ferreira, AAP leader Adv Amit Palekar, environmentalist Ramesh Gawas, and activists Shankar Polji and Albertina Almeida also spoke in solidarity.
The mood in Chimbel is tense with the chain hunger strike now the heart of the agitation, energizing the movement.
The standoff is poised to intensify with Chimbel becoming the latest battleground in the growing resistance to large-scale projects that threaten land, water, and livelihoods while attention will now be on the District Court when it hears the matter again on January 8.
