NT Reporter
Panaji
A referendum on any proposed land-use zoning changes is the only way to ensure true public participation and environmental self-determination, retired Bombay High Court judge Justice (Retd) Gautam
Patel said on Saturday.
Speaking at the launch of the fifth edition of the book ‘Fish Curry and Rice’ by the acclaimed green activist Claude Alvares, Justice Patel hit out at the controversial Section 39A of the Town and Country Planning Act, calling it “fundamentally and frontally unconstitutional”.
He maintained that this provision allows the Chief Town Planner to “almost whimsically change land-use zoning” while
reducing public participation to mere cosmetic
consultations. Justice Patel warned that the current system of “suggestions and objections” is merely cosmetic, as decisions are often predetermined. Invoking a Supreme Court precedent from the Odisha mining case, he said communities must be allowed to vote on projects affecting their land.
“Let there be a referendum on any one of these proposed land-use zoning changes… Put it to the vote,” the retired HC judge opined, stating that the land should not be treated like a “piece of meat in a butcher’s shop to be carved up and distributed”.
The former judge, who developed a deep affection for Goa during his tenure handling environmental cases including the one on Lucky Seven casino removal from Miramar beach, painted a troubling picture of the state’s transformation.
“What we are witnessing is a process known as othering, where Goans have become the others: the lesser ones who do not matter,” he remarked, criticising how outsiders increasingly make decisions about Goan land and culture.
Justice Patel said legal intervention must remain a final option. “Courts should be the last resort, not the first,” he said, adding that real change requires physical presence.
“Don’t just sign online petitions… The job is on the streets. The job is at Azad Maidan,” he said, exhorting citizens to defend their rights “loudly and together”,
The state must rid itself of the “arrogance” currently dominating land-use decisions, Justice Patel said.
Speaking on the occasion, former chief justice of the Allahabad High Court Justice (Retd) Ferdino Rebello emphasised the deeper meaning of “fish curry and rice” as representing Goa’s complete ecosystem – from hills and streams (fish) to coconut groves and spice trees (curry) to paddy fields (rice).
Alvares described the book as a “standard reference” that has been revised and made up-to-date for the current “war”, noting that it serves the ordinary people of Goa as they fight to protect their villages.
