At long last Goa appears to have found a messiah-like figure in former Chief Justice Ferdino Rebello to take on the Goa government with his public meeting and statewide people’s movement to stop the “moral and ecological collapse” of Goa.
Among the several demands in Rebello’s 10-point charter of demands presented to CM Pramod Sawant is the immediate repeal of Sections 17(2) and 39A of the Town and Country Planning Department Act (TCP) and the repeal of the 2023 hill-cutting circular which permits construction on hills.
According to Justice Rebello, all these changes have caused drastic changes in the land and ecology of the state which are not in accordance with the Regional Plan and Outline Development Plan (ODP), and have benefited only builders and outsiders with the conversion of lakhs of sq metres of agricultural and forest land to settlement zones.
Secondly, Justice Rebello also expressed deep concern over the destruction of the Mandovi river due to the presence of offshore casinos and called for their removal within six months. While all these suggestions do not require any legislative amendments, according to Justice Rebello, the ball is now in the Goa government’s court to act swiftly before further damage is done.
