By Rajan Narayan
The protest in Pernem are now against commmercial estate to Bardez and Canacona
And a few stray thoughts for a Saturday following the week when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa seems to have decided to cut Vishwajit Rane down to size. For a Saturday following the week when the revolt against the land conversions that started in Pernem has spread to Bardez. For a Saturday following the week when for the first time banners were raised against migrants in Goa. For a Saturday following the week when the government’s official IFFI website exposed Aadhar data and women’s contact information of some women. For another Saturday when I discovered how dangerous walkers can be.
AND a few stray thoughts on the cutting down to size of Vishwajit Rane. The BJP gave Vishwajit a long rope and permitted him to take unilateral actions without consulting the party or chief minister. Vishwajit made more drastic changes in the Town & Country Plan Act than even Atanasio Babush Monserrate but did not succeed. It may be recalled that when Babush Monserratte was the T&C minister in the Manohar Parrikar government he sought to concretize the whole of Goa through Regional Plan 2011. Babush literally took the maps home and invited builders to colour it wherever they wanted to suit their business interests. So all the green indicating agricultural areas were converted into settlement zones.
Even forest lands both private and public were allowed to be converted. There was a huge uproar against thee Regional Plan 2011 and the chief minister who followed Manohar Parrikar, Digambar Kamat, was forced to scrap Regional Plan 2011. It may be recalled that Digambar set up a committee under the chairmanship of the late Indian architect and urban planner and environmental genius Charles Correa, to draw up a fresh regional plan. The committee included Edgar Ribeiro who then chief town planner for India. It was Edgar who formulated Goa’s first Regional Plan 2001 which in theory is still in force. The Goa Bachao Abhiyan citizens group led by Dr Oscar Rebello opposed Regional Plan 2011 drawn up by Babush.
The primary principal of the new 2021 plan drawn up by Charles Correa and Edgar Ribeiro was that no tenanted agricultural land should be converted. Goa was divided into several planning zones depending on the density of population. The plan was based on the principal that greater conversions can be permitted in the low density population areas like Sanguem and Pernem taluka. Highly populated taluka like Taleigao and Santa Cruz would not be permitted to convert any additional agricultural land. Similarly, in the case of Santa Cruz and Merces, the khazan lands which being raped by the present government were to be protected.
Babush Monserrate had increased the floor area ratio (FAR) to permit 10 and 15-storeyed buildings. All the monster buildings you see down the Dona Paula-Miramar beach highway are creations of Babush. Babush had the Marine Drive of Bombay as his model. He also arbitrarily widened the roads in Taleigao encroaching on agricultural land to provide access to new building complexes.
Vishwaji Rane went several steps further than Babush Monserratte. Vishwajit amended section 70 of the Town & Country Planning Act to allow the government to permit conversions in any part of Goa without clearance from Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and inviting public opinion.
Vishwajit also reduced the area which would qualify as a farm house from 15,000 sqmts to 1,000 sqmts; moreover he permitted an FAR of 80% in these 1,000 sqmts plots. This is responsible for the massive 4-bedroom villas with swimming pools which have come up Assagao and other parts of the state and especially in the Western Ghats taluka. The last straw was when Vishwajit created a new zonal plan where an additional 25% of prime agricultural land would be converted into settlement and commercial zones in Pernem taluka to boost the prospects of MOPA.
Already over 500,000 sqmts have been converted for the benefit of the Deltin Group which wants to set up an Essel World clone next to MOPA airport. Which would include hotels, casinos, entertainment park with water bodies, etcetera. Pernem is the stronghold of the BJP which was represented by Laxmikant Parsekar, former CM of Goa. Parsekar became chief minister when the late Manohar Parrikar was called to Delhi to take up the Defence portfolio by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Goa BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade who is now also a Rajya Sabha member, strongly objected to Vishwajit’s bulldozing of Pernem.
And so for the first time BJP including Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant took strong action and scrapped the new zonal plan of Vishwajit Rane. It was made very clear that Vishwajit could not any action without consulting the party and its chief minister. This has been a major blow to Vishwajit who had aspirations of becoming the chief minister.
ANTI-CONVERSION FEVER SPREADS
AND a few stray thoughts on the stalled land conversions in Pernem which spread to Bardez. There have been proposals for converting large areas of land in Pomburpa and Agacaim. The villagers have been protesting against the destruction of the hills in the villages by builders from outside Goa who do not understand the age old Goan lifestyle of peaceful village life.
It may be recalled that there was a sudden epidemic of fires all over the state on top of hills and slopes some time ago in the summer months. Under the existing TCP Act rules no construction may come up on forested hills and their forested slopes. But the fires were a deliberate conspiracy by vested interests to destroy the forest greenery and so claim that the hills be declared barren land ideal for construction buildings. This would facilitate construction on hill tops too which are much sought after.
In Assagao the majority of luxury villas built are of outsiders or non-Goans. These villas are for mostly renting out to tourists and they come with swimming pools, housekeeping and kitchen staff, and even a dedicated car rental service. The latest outburst of protests in Bardez are in consequent of Panchayat permission to cut a hill to build a bungalow for a private party.
Some Panchayat members have expressed fears that outsiders are building villas and hotels in green areas of Goa to the detriment of the traditional Goan environment and lifestyle. These constructions are coming up in areas with natural cover where no developmental activity is legally permitted.
Interestingly, a revolt has broken out not against the poor migrants but the bold and the beautiful, and the rich and the powerful, who want to build luxurious second homes in the state. Goa has become an alternative for the farm houses in Mehrauli in Delhi and Alibag close to Bombay in Maharashtra has also been concretised for the rich and famous.
Goa is already home to several big film stars of Bombay film industry. Ironically, though veteran journalists will not report on Goa or resist concretisation of Goa, they all have homes in the state. Ranging from Radhika and Pranoy Roy to Tarun Tejpal. Tejpal has been fighting the 2013 molestation case filed against him by Goa government from his plush villa in Moira. Rajdeep Sardesai also has a large villa in Verem but this is justified by the fact that his father Dilip Sardessai is a Goan.
AADHAR CARD PRIVACY
AND a few stray thoughts on the government IFFI site leaking Aadhar card data of some women in Goa. However, Aadhar card information is protected and strictly confidential. The 12 digit Aadhar number and other personal information is not supposed to be shared on social media or for commercial purposes.
Though the Information Ministry may ask for Aadhar card to identify delegates, they may not share this information with the public at large on a public site. It has now been disclosed that the creative minds of tomorrow segment of IFFI has put up the personal details of those who had applied to be part of the event. A section of the media has been able to access the parent directory of the creative minds of the IFFI portal and obtain even details of pan card, driving license, passport, etc. The date of over hundred participants who may have submitted entries has become vulnerable to exploitation. This reinforces fears that the Aadhar card is not fool-proof and could be misused by crooks for commercial use. It is also clear that IFFI organisers are not protecting the privacy of delegates and participants.
AND a few stray thoughts on reputed institutions like the National Institute of Technology of Technology in Goa being “saffronized.” The latest directive to the engineering students of NIT Goa will have them studying the Arthashastra and Vedic mathematics. The Arthashstra is an economic treatise formulated by ancient law maker Chanakya. The Arthashastra is more of a book on manipulative politics than economics. Indeed, the BJP is following the principles laid down in the Arthashastra to create a Hindutva dictatorship.
Vedic mathematics may be valid in certain areas. It is however irrelevant in the era of artificial intelligence. There have been no doubt very famous Indian mathematicians like Ramanujan, a clerk in a government office in Goa. His mathematical genius mind was appreciated and respected by Oxford University’s Professor Hardy in England where Ramanujan was invited for further research. Ramanujan managed to solve long standing mathematical problems which defied even the best in the field.
Ramanujan’s theories are the basis for the development of robotics. However, in insisting that engineering students should study Vedic mathematics we are going back in time. This is like Narendra Modi’s suggestion that Indians were experts at head transplants based on the myth of Lord Shiva transplanting the head of a baby elephant on his son Ganesh whose head he had chopped off.
The BJP also claims that Indians advanced aeronautical technology with the claim that `Ramayana’ epic’s King Ravana owned an aircraft called Pushpavihar and he used it to transport the kidnapped Sita from the forest. Never mind that Lord Ravana was a Shiva bhakt and the king of Lanka kingdom.
NO GAY MARRIAGES!
AND a last stray thought on a major blow to the gay community. The Supreme Court has now ruled against same sex marriage. Earlier an SC single bench had permitted same sex or homosexual marriages as legal. Now a five-judge constitutional bench has struck this down. It may be recalled that the late fashion guru Wendall Rodrigues had to marry his partner French partner in a civil ceremony in France, as same sex marriages were banned in India.