Almost every law in the State is being tweaked/amended/abrogated to facilitate construction activity at humongous cost to the environment, ofcourse the fact that it lines the pockets of the our politicians makes law breaking a huge incentive for them.
A case in point is the ruinous announcement that 6 crore square meters (@ 1.7% of the total area of the state) which was erroneously demarcated as agricultural/orchard land will be converted ‘back’ to settlement zone. It is nobody’s case that in one fell swoop Goa loses @2% of it’s green cover.
The builders are laughing all the way to the bank, the politicians are happy, who cares what happens to the environment or the common man. Laws are also being ‘rationalised’ to increase FAR and consequently buildable/saleable area in coastal and urban areas which have already exceeded their carrying capacity.
Plans are also afoot to reduce building setbacks from the high tide line without taking into consideration that there is massive sand erosion occuring at Goa’s beaches, but hey...soon we shall have Miami style condominiums right on the water’s edge owned by people whose hearts don’t beat for Goa. Such development is myopic, it is certain that climate crises will not spare these projects.
