To Goanet - Last week, following a request under the RTI Act, I received documents for land conversions for specified villages in Salcette. I had asked for information for the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Additionally, I have the papers for other areas and talukas of Goa.
A few examples of the sanads are given below. The essence of the information is on the top half of the first page. The following are the things to look for: Date of issue, Name, Address and Survey number of the plot, Area. Remember, these are only a few of the large number of papers obtained. Varca - http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/varca-1.jpg (note whose name it is issued in) http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/varca-2.jpg http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/varca-3.jpg Carmona - http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/carmona.jpg (is this the same as the stalled Raheja project, or is this a different plot?) Benaulim - http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/benaulim.jpg (Benaulim has the most conversions in the years requested) Colva - http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/colva.jpg For the taluka of Canacona - http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/canacona-1.jpg http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/canacona-2.jpg http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/canacona-3.jpg http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/canacona-4.jpg http://www.parrikar.org/images/RTI/canacona-5.jpg (these seem to involve the same players) I have said it many times on Goanet. Goa is doomed unless all construction and land conversion is brought to a halt immediately. Also - the oft-heard cliche about we Goans being responsible for the destruction of our homeland is, yes, true. But it is equally true that it is Goans themselves who now stand in the way of reclaiming Goa. You may think I am referring to the miners and the builders only. Not true. I have been at this business of investigating and documenting photographically the ruin of Goa the past 18 months or so, the last 9 months out of them with unusual intensity and focus. I have now come to the conclusion that what we have here in Goa is a mafia of activists that IS AS DANGEROUS AS THE BUILDERS AND THE MINERS. I have thousands of photographs, hundreds of RTI documents (all obtained by expending personal time, effort and money - and these things don't come cheap - and at risk to my person). You would think that a group like the GBA would have sought all the info bank I have accumulated. No! Not a single activist from this body (supposedly at the forefront of saving Goa) has bothered. When I questioned the GBA leaders about their activities and utterances, I was branded a saffronite or it was alleged that I was trying to foment dissent in the ranks of the GBA at the behest of BJP. When cornered with uncomfortable questions, the strategy is to label the interlocutor saffron. That's Activism 101 in Goa for you. We recently tried to bring everyone together on a common platform we called the Goa People's Assembly. The usual rascals immediately perked up, afraid that the space they have commandeered all this while may be toast. Here, too, we had saboteurs. Some speakers were told not to attend. The common Goan citizen will have to ponder the question: who would want to disrupt a meet that could potentially have paved the way for a call for a complete ban on construction & conversion? That would have conceivably demonstrated a united front and put the govt, builders and miners on notice? You can go back and read the postings of "Satyawan Govekar" - the fake ID. Too bad for him that he got found out. But this is the kind of gutter sludge that one has to deal with here in Goa. Yhe Taleigao Bachao Abhiyan had invited me to screen "The Rape of Goa" in their village on July 6. Yesterday, I received a call from one of the organizers with profuse apologies that the screening will not be possible. Today, I learnt that a couple of people (including one who fancies himself as an intellectual) were responsible for scuttling the screening. These hypocrites are quick to condemn the Sangh Parivar for intolerance but are themselves the biggest exemplars of intolerance and bigotry. These are the lowest of the low - censors of freedom of expression because the contents do not sit well with their dogma. The activist mafia is deeply entrenched here and Goa will not be saved by the current cast of operators, most of whom have a vested interest in keeping construction, conversion and mining strong and healthy. I have seen the damage done to Goa firsthand. Through the RTI, I have also pried open just a wee bit the door to the vault of frauds perpetrated on the Goan people. To sift through, process, & analyze all the papers I have and get the big picture would require a sizable staff on full-time duty. An organization like the GBA should have had a huge database by now, but they have NOTHING. Why do all the hard work when you can simply show up at a public meeting and give a rousing speech, or give a press quote, or preen in front of a TV camera? After all these months, I have a good measure of the activist community in Goa. Naxalites they are not. Tricksters, shams and frauds, that's what many of them are. And they will be the ones presiding over the bonfire of Goa. This will be the last set of photographs/documents I post to Goanet. Warm regards, r
