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The Rape of Goa - A photo documentary
by
Rajan P. Parrikar
Venue: Menezes Braganza Art Gallery, Panjim, May 21-24, 2008
http://www.parrikar.org/misc/doc-notice.pdf
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Fighting the mega projects
By Devika Sequeira
Grassroots resistance to mega housing projects in villages across Goa
is redefining the role and the power of the gram sabhas in this
tourist destination.
Gram sabhas have traditionally been active in Goa. But the spate of
protests against the upscale urbanisation of rural Goa that is
spreading like a contagion from village to village and gram sabha to
gram sabha, is turning the unique sociological phenomenon into a
political and legal challenge for the Congress-led government.
In early April, the gram sabha of Carmona in South Goa, resisting the
transformation of the small scenic village into an "urban Eldorado for
the rich" from outside Goa gave the thumbs down to K Raheja. The
realty major's plans to implant an enclave of luxury villas with 93
individual plunge pools into the heart of the village have been frozen
by the village panchayat since. Similar upmarket projects are being
stonewalled through gram sabhas in the villages of Aldona, Benaulim,
Bambolim, Siridao, Chorao to name just a few.
The groundswell of resentment against moneyed speculators and
foreigners on the prowl for holiday-home-properties has been mounting
in Goa as the local population finds itself increasingly marginalised
with the influx of "outsiders" and the northward bound property
prices. Goa's population at 13.4 lakh a decade ago (2001 Census) is
projected to touch 16.5 lakh by 2011 and 18.05 lakh by 2021, the
state's task force on the Regional Plan reveals.
By 2021, Goa's pastoral character, enhanced by its beautiful villages,
is set for a dramatic reversal too with impending urbanisation. Around
12.6 lakh of the state's population will by then be living in
municipal areas against 5.4 lakh in panchayat zones. Today 9.5 lakh
people here live in villages compared to 4 lakh in townships. India's
smallest state, all of 3078 sq km, draws besides a floating tourist
population of 25 lakh a year. As a state with the lowest birth rate in
the country (15.2 in 2006), the fears that the Goan identity will soon
be submerged by the changing demographics are not unfounded.
Goa's powerful Catholic Church, historically active in peoples'
movements, has thrown its weight behind the new resistance. "The
church has always taken up issues where people are being victimised,"
said Fr Maverick Fernandes of the Council for Social Justice and
Peace.
The speculative boom, he argues, is eroding the character of Goa's
towns and villages, changing their demographic composition and driving
property prices beyond the reach of the local people.
As the awakening against the sellout of Goa rallying under the
umbrella of Ganv Ghor Rakhonn Manch gains momentum, the movement to
scale up resistance through the gram sabhas in Goa appears set for a
confrontation with the government. "Projects that have been approved
by the authorities cannot be overturned by the gram sabhas,"
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat warned protesters after a well-attended
public meeting in South Goa resolved to defy the government on mega
projects cleared without a village development plan. Lawyer Cleofato
Coutinho agrees. "The gram sabha has no powers to reverse decisions
taken by the panchayat," he says, particularly in matters of land and
urban planning which are not within its purview.
Like many others here Mr Coutinho backs the "sentiment" behind the
resistance to group housing that is changing the face and character of
rural Goa. But the battle, he says, would have to be fought on a
public platform larger than the gram sabha to compel the government to
effect changes in the planning laws.
