This is the Moira Action Committee reply to Amar Britto's justification to destroy the tranquility, peace, harmony and environment of Moira -- Tony de Sa Ph: +91 832 2470148 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] M: +91 9975 162 897 ----------------------------------------------------------- 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' Edmund Burke. ----------------------------------------------------------
MOIRA ACTION COMMITTEE Dear Mr Britto, You wrote an open letter to the people of Moira and Aldona in this forum (Navhind Times) when they protested the projects that you were building in their villages. The Moira Action Committee would like to reply to you. Firstly let us state our problem with your project. You propose to build a gated community for the super rich. Fifteen villas which boast sixteen swimming pools between them. Each one for a 'special introductory price' of Rs 2.5 crores. Your plans show no space for garbage recycling. No sewage disposal. And more importantly no explanations as to where the water for all the swimming pools etc will come from and how it will be disposed of. Our protest is simple. Your project is being built in an area that commonly gets just one hour of water a day. Sixteen swimming pools is the last thing that the area needs. Garbage is already a problem in Moira without your garbage adding to it. You show no plans for the disposal of cholorinated water from your swimming pools. You show a road of 15 meters bounding your project one side and a 6 meter road on the other. The truth is that there exist two roads of 6 meters and less than 3 meters respectively – and there is no possibility of their being widened. The land itself is thick with indigenous trees, bamboo groves and is a natural bird habitat – which you will have to cut and destroy to build. All this apart from the essential problem of hill cutting without which you cannot build on the current land ( already a problem with your project in Aldona). We quote from your letter – 'Acron had already planned this development with grey water recycling, water harvesting, garbage segregation and disposal, solar water heating panels, building integrated photovoltaic panels, vermiculture treatment & compost systems, an effluent treatment plant and many other eco friendly systems which will be a first for the village of Moira, notwithstanding the villagers apprehensions !!' The first for the villagers in this case is hearing of these plans. Your site plans show no space set aside for 'grey water recycling, water harvesting, garbage segregation and disposal, solar water heating panels, building integrated photovoltaic panels, vermiculture treatment & compost systems'. Vermiculture and compost systems take space and planning, neither of which are reflected in your plans. Your plan shows two security cabins but no water harvesting. It shows merely two soak pits for sixteen units ( each of which will have at least three bathrooms). The well from which the PWD supplies water to the entire village lies in the plot below your project and will be directly impacted. The danger of contamination of ground water thanks to badly planned sewage, sullage and chlorinated water is immense. We have no intention of being added to the list of places that can no longer drink their own water – like Panaji, Calangute and Taleigaon. No doubt all that you listed has been retro fitted onto your project since the village sat up and protested. You also demand that the rest of Moira retro fit itself with eco friendly gadgets since your project now claims it is doing so. The rest of Moira, alas, are ordinary people living ordinary lives. They don't have projects worth 40 crores. At that price surely the least you can put in is the latest modern technology. And at that price, the least you can afford is a conscience. You are selling your project with the advertising line 'Come live in the heart of an unspoilt Goan village'. Does it not bother you that what you are building is a gated community for the super rich – which is as far from village life as anyone can imagine? That you are destroying the very thing that you are advertising? You continue in your letter to wax indignant that the people of the village are daring to protest when you have taken all permissions from the 'necessary authorities'. Your accusations are in tune with the rest of the building lobby and concerned parties who are now seeking to label genuine activism as 'anarchy'. The real anarchists are the Government of Goa who is foisting upon the people projects that give them no benefits, which take away their limited resources and completely disrupt their way of life. The real anarchists are builders who get projects passed by bribing their way around permissions and misrepresenting facts, who ignore the common man's genuine problems, and who then try and claim the moral high ground as injured parties. Let's take a look at who are the real injured parties here. The injured parties are the people of Calizor, the vaddo where your sixteen swimming pool project is coming up. These are people who get one hour of water a day. Who stand in line for tankers. The injured parties are the farmers at the lower level into whose land your chlorinated water will find its way. The injured parties are the villagers who will have to dispose of the garbage that comes from your project. The injured party is the village of Moira that will have a gated exclusive project in it's midst that destroys the very idea of village community life. According to you the Panchayat Act needs to be amended to allow Gram Sabhas to over turn Panchayat licences. Perhaps you are unaware that until this happens the law as it stands states clearly 'Gram Sabha resolutions will be binding on the Panchayat'. And perhaps you are further unaware that the 73rd and 74th Amendment to the Panchayati Raj Act which the Goa Government has committed to following through on – in fact devolves far more powers to the people and the panchayat. All this because the basis of law in India is democracy. The will of the people is supreme. Perhaps you would also prefer it if Democracy itself was amended – it is so terribly inconvenient to listen to the people when there are crores at stake isn't it? But it is our village that is concerned. Our environment that will be impacted. Our lives that will be changed. And it is our right to stand up and protest. As we have and will continue to do so. You end by saying that the problem is infrastructure. Certainly it is. But the problem is also greed. If, instead of your current project, you, a goan, had built an ungated community of houses that were affordable to Goans living in the area, with modest water requirements, and viable sewage and garbage plans, you would be seen as a benefactor. Instead can we be blamed for seeing you as part of a gang of real estate sharks willing and eager to sell Goan land to the highest bidder? You have chosen to sign your letter ' for Acron Builders, Amar Britto'. We think it would only be fair to inform the public that you are the proprietor of Acron Builders, your wife Isabelle is the architect of the Acron project in Moira, and your father-in-law is ex chief of the Town and Country Planning Board. Acron is obviously a family business. We are sorry that you feel 'singled out' to be attacked. The truth is that any builder, local or otherwise, who tries to build inappropriately in our village will find himself facing the resistance of the villagers. A gated community by definition is meant to shut people out. We, the people of Moira, do not want to shut anyone out. But we want to let in people who will love, respect and preserve our village. We are determined to defend and preserve Moira at all costs. THE MOIRA ACTION COMMITTEE Signed on behalf of the MAC: Tanya Mendonsa, Vigilia Desa, Venita Coelho, Raju Verelekar, Sayonara D'Souza ------------------------------------------------------------
