Who is really selling Goa

1) Who's buying
The Goa Bachao Abhiyan rightly clarified recently it was not againstnon-Goans in Goa but against the anti-Goan. More particularly, I (notthem) assume Delhi's (in particular) well fixed who spread their money generously bribing every one in sight to get their work done as pronto as possible and any which way even if wrong.There is another and never openly talked about side to it, the Goanbhatcar, who has been selling land he inherited for nothing to buyers who do have an iota of love for Goa and whose other common denominator is they come from Delhi where it appears all of India's black money is holed up. Let's begin with the Loutolim MLA Aleixo Sequeria who often has professed his love for Goa and claims to being a true blue son-of-the-soil. Why sell your Colva hotel (Oceanique) then to MEK Developers Pvt. Ltd. of guess where? New Delhi.

Arossim Arises
Finally, some people at least in the area have woken up to the brutality (and stay with me on this word) of the degradation inArossim and banded together under the Cansaulim, Arossim, VelsaoPeople's Front (CAVPF) that has irked Mauvin Godinho because of the money power of the hotel lobby. I spent a day at Arossim soaking in their plight. This is what I saw: sewerage water apparently from the Heritage Village Club flowed right down to the beach several hundred meters away. The hotel couldn't care less. The hotel showed a 10 mts wide existing public road as its own when it applied for permission to expand. The hotel stonewalls every query sent to it in this regard by the Cansaulim, Arossim, Cuelim VP.

2) Mocking CRZ and locals
A report of the Mormugao Mamlatdar dated August 4, 2006 states that the Goa Inn (proposed beach resort) fenced off their huge property(survey112/1, 113/2, 113/4 & 113/5) with 10-200 mts from the HTL. You have to be blind to not notice that this resort to be built on the beach will undoubtedly beat every record the hotel on Baga beach set as a violator of the CRZ. Goa Inn has refused to remove their offending fence. Its intentions are so blatant that villagers have asked the Sarpanch to revoke an earlier permission before the beach is usurped. Ahead of its property towards the shore, the hotel has almost fenced off an old cross where villagers have prayed for decades.

In Velsao the report said MRF built laterite stone structures (200 sqmts) between 108-128 mts from the HTL. Finolex built and occupies a series of row houses and a huge bungalow in Prail Vaddo, Cansaulim between 10-200 mts from the HTL. Never mind what the official record said, the owners built a barbeque area on the beach itself with complete recklessness. On one side next of this monstrosity are two huge bungalows built by Delhites. The Park Hyatt did landscaping and some masonry work within 10-200 mts according to the report. CAVPF says the hotel's security staff earlier frisked people entering aprivate road leading to their property but stopped after villagers protested.

3) Anger, Angst in Arossim
Mauvin whom Arossim villagers know will not back their protest said at a function recently attended by no less than Digambar Kamat (his benefactor) that his detractors the Velsao and Cansaulim Sarpanches were like "chili and salt."

Mathany Saldanha, villagers cannot understand why, is yet to throw his weight behind the Front. But they expect and want him to do so soon.The Front says it is determined to fight the privatization of the Arossim beach where already one poor Goan coastal onion farmer has so far been tortured by goons, his daughter raped and is harassed continuously because his precious ancestral land is the only one that stands between his and the property owned by another Delhi firm that wants to buy him out. In fact while I was talking to Constance JoaoFernandes in his poor homestead, a police constable from the Verna Police Station dropped by to pry amidst heavy rain. Fernandes a die-hard Mathany supporter says local goons continue to bang on his doors at night threatening him but he won't budge. The Verna police meanwhile continue to keep their paymasters abreast of even a single stranger like me meeting him, but do not bother to prosecute his tormentors.

Dutch auction of Goa
Thanks to the wonderful Right to Information Act, 2005 I have a list of Goans who sold an incredible 77,254 sq mt to Delhi's Competent Automobiles Company Ltd who plan to as their name suggests change the face of Arossim with the proficiency only Delhites have by constructing a resort right down to the beach. From the sale deed an Arossim villager obtained under RTI, I discovered Kenneth Saldanha sold 18,354 sq mt of thus huge parcel of land as recently as January2006 for Rs1,50,07,400 that on paper works out to a mere Rs817 per sqmt. Across the narrow road down to Arossim beach the Saldanha family sold an additional 965 sq mt to Goa Inn.

Between them, Competent and Goa Inn could effectively choke off the beach either side of the road down to the sea. In other words the now lonely Arossim beach and road will in future transform itself to be like Candolim beach or the lane road past Tito's in Baga. No wonder the village is fighting the privatization of Arossim beach or what'sleft of it.

The family of Dr Eqipsy sold 37,816 sq mt to Competent. Since you can sell land to anybody you want to in a free democracy, my intention is again to narrow down the blame game and expose the dubious role played by certain coastal Village Panchayats like for example Canacona,Calangute, Candolim and now Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim where Martha Saldanha the former Sarpanch is largely held responsible for the selling-out of this still old-world village. And also because in the currently vastly expanded blame game, the devious role particularly of Sarpanches in the coastal belt seldom find even passing mention.Example: Competent's application dated May 16, 2006 to raise a temporary fence around its property was approved on May 30 according to a certified true copy of a letter written to Competent dated June3, 2006. However another certified copy of a letter from the VP reproducing these facts shows Competent's application was dated May26, 2006. Why the discrepancies?

The future of Arossim is here
Already Competent has blocked off the traditional path to the propertyof John Barros Pereira who lives in Japan by the Goa-tried and tested method of fencing off its own properties that surround his. Elsewhere, but in the same village, Finolex the firm that built huge buildings virtually right down to be beach, blocked off the motorable traditional path to the property of a neighbouring villager. In fact this panchayat has several people who readily show you letters exposing Martha machinations but because they fear her do not want to reveal themselves.

Disappearing CRZ
According to the Mamlatdar of Mormugao exactly a year ago there were410 illegal constructions in the CRZ area of the Mormugao taluka.Interestingly, in the official list the violators listed against sr.no. 91 to 410 exist only in survey no. 54/2 in the village ofMormugao. Over three-quarters of violators are migrants. The largest recorded area of construction concerning an individual is 234 sq mt and the list includes a hospital built over 500 sq mt. That is one aspect of the declining CRZ in and around here.The other is Competent's competency in building big which has dangerous portents for Arossim. Competent Automobiles Co. Ltd. has two Maruti dealerships -one in Delhi, the other at Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. A group company Competent Construction Company only builds monolithic multi-storeyed buildings like a foreign mission it built, the 5-star Hotel Sofital Surya also in Delhi. The Aero Club, another huge edifice and Bharat Hotels, whose ancillary building alone is92,936 sq mt and consists of the World Trade Centre, World Trade Tower and the Hotel Inter Continental, a 25-level building. There is more news to their construction but it is too depressing to tell because viewed in the milieu of New Delhi their achievements are wonderful but in Goa they will mean the end of our lung space.