Also decides to relocate Prashasan Sthamb project
Panaji : Backing down in the face of strong opposition from villagers, the state government on Wednesday decided to shift the proposed Unity Mall and Prashasan Sthamb projects from Chimbel to a different site, even as the survey of the project site showed that it falls outside the zone of influence of the Toyyar wetland.
Speaking to reporters, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant maintained that the proposed site for the Unity Mall and Prashasan Sthamb falls outside the zone of influence of the Toyyar wetland.
“I don’t know what was the intention of the people who were opposing the project,” Sawant remarked.
In a statement issued late evening, the government said that it is amply clear from the survey that the proposed site for Unity Mall and Prashasan Sthamb not only falls outside the zone of influence of the Toyyar wetland, but also the catchment area that was mapped by the experts engaged by the villagers. Pointing out that although the project site is in a settlement zone adjoining the national highway, the government said that “upon considering the sentiments and emotions of some of the villagers, it has been decided to shift the location of both government projects to a different site”
Reacting to the government decision, the protesters welcomed the development. “It’s a victory of Chimbel residents and also of the people of Goa who supported us”, said Govind Shirodkar, chairman of the village biodiversity committee adding “truth has prevailed”. They said that the future course of action will be decided after receiving the official communication. The villagers including a sizeable tribal population, had been on a hunger strike for nearly a month now at the site. They had accused the Tourism Department of not having discussed the details of the Unity Mall project.
As reported yesterday, the villagers had planned a massive agitation called ‘Maha Andolon’ from January 30. Sources said that the government had information that if the decision to relocate the projects had not been announced by Thursday, a mega agitation would have been launched by the villagers with the support of other activists. This being the election year as the assembly elections are likely in one year’s time and municipal elections in another 2-3 months, top BJP leaders were not keen to go ahead with the projects.
Subsequent to the meeting of Chimbel villagers with the Chief Minister on January 21, directions were issued for conducting a thorough mapping of the wetland and zone of influence of the Toyyar Lake.
Thereafter, the survey exercise commenced on January 23, along with representatives of the villagers, their expert members and the advocate, a hydrologist and an architect along with officials of CSIR-NIO, expert members of the wetland authority, DSLR and the Tourism Department.
The entire exercise was completed on January 28.
“During the comprehensive exercise a thorough ground truthing was done to demarcate the catchment area, drainage lines, surface and sub-surface flows, vegetation cover, cultivation by the farmers and springs as per the suggestions of the villagers,” the press note issued by the Tourism Department said.
It informed that the survey team traversed along the boundary of the catchment area to map the water sources, water drainage lines and inspected every point shown by the villagers.
“The survey team mapped the various inlet points in the lake along with high water line and low water line and the earthen bund of the lake. Besides the physical demarcation, assistance of high definition drones was taken for understanding the contours of the land,” the government informed.
Upon the completion of the exercise the draft report along with the detailed maps were shared with the villagers and their advocate.
Meanwhile, when asked by the media, Curchorem MLA and former minister for environment Nilesh Cabral said “I don’t mind taking it (Unity Mall project) to Curchorem (constituency). May people will welcome it”. He said there was much opposition to the garbage treatment plant in his constituency but he went ahead with it and is running fine treating solid waste from several parts of South Goa district and Kushavati district.
