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What's On In Goa:
* Oct 16-17: Ornithology workshop, Bondla southernbirdwing.com
* Oct 16-27: Vipasana meditation, Alto Porvorim
* Oct 24: Antonio Pereira Puraskar (Award) ceremony, Porvorim
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>From Deccan Herald * By Devika Sequeira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Tourism takes a wrong turn
The Candolim-Baga-Calangute coastal belt which has
the highest density of construction and unplanned development
in Goa, is perhaps the best example of all that is wrong
with Goa's tourism
For the five-star resort, it is a real estate acquisition of
unparalleled beauty. For the local residents, it is just another instance
of high-level backroom manipulations that have seen prime seaside
community properties in Goa appropriated and gifted away to big players
by the state government.
The Taj Group's proposal to set up an entertainment park of
international standards on the Fort Aguada plateau, Sinquerim, North Goa,
where the group runs a cluster of three resorts, has come up against a
wall of resistance from locals. The Candolim village panchayat rejected
the plan outright in July, and activist groups there say they are
determined to see the project cancelled, and the land returned to the
village for public use.
Proposed originally as a Disneyland or Esselworld-style
entertainment centre, the Goa Government signed an agreement with Indian
Resort Hotels Ltd., in 1997 leasing out 3 lakh square metres of land
acquired from the Comunidade of Sinquerim ('comunidades' are local
self-governing bodies that look after community property holdings of
original residents of the village) in 1985. The land was acquired by the
government ostensibly for "a public purpose" at the throw-away rate of Rs
10 per square metre. (Property in such prime locations sell for Rs 1,000
to Rs 2,500 today, says the local sarpanch.)
The land, which stands between the historic Sinquerim Church, the
Fort Aguada Jail and the Taj's Fort Aguada Beach Resort, with its a
breath-taking view of the sea is a real estate agent's dream in Goa's
over-stressed properties' market. "It is a scandal that such prime
property should be given away for a song," former Congress chief minister
Luizinho Faleiro had argued in the Goa House when he asked the government
to explain why the lease had not been cancelled, since no rent had been
paid to the government for five years. The lease allows the hotel group a
run of the land for life (99 years to be specific) on a payment of Rs 1
crore a year or five per cent of the park's gross turnover (whichever is
higher). No payment is due till clearances are granted, says the
government.
Though a conditional environment clearance has been given the
project by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, Indian Resort
Hotels will find it tough to bypass the increasing local opposition to
the project. The entertainment park is to house a children's area, a
theatre, yoga centre, recreation hall, two swimming pools (including a
lagoon) and some 20 cottages on 10,000 sq mts of built-up area, apart
from three helipads. The Candolim Residents and Consumer Forum (CRCF),
which is spearheading the resistance to the project, suspects the Taj
Group is using the project only to expand its existing resort holdings.
CRCF convenor Agnelo Barreto, who is a member of the 'comunidade',
points out that the existing hotel (Fort Aguada) occupies 1.25 lakh
square metres land acquired similarly by the government from the
'comunidade' in 1972 and passed on to the Taj group for a yearly lease
rent of just Rs 18,000. The rent, he says, has not been raised till
today.
"There is already too much construction in this area
(Sinquerim-Candolim is part of Goa's famous North Goa tourism belt) and
we cannot afford to let go of the last bit of green area," says Congress
MLA Agnelo Fernandes who is also the sarpanch of the village. The Taj
project in its present form will not be cleared by the panchayat because
the locals are opposed to it, he said. "They will have to change it to a
jogger's park or anything that will maintain the greenery and be open for
the use of the local people."
The citizen's forum which is in discussions with representatives of
the hotel says it is trying to arrive at a compromise. It wants the land
to be returned and handed over to the forest department so a reserve
forest can be set up on the plateau. "So many mistakes have been made in
the past both by the panchayats and local people.We cannot allow that to
happen in this case too," says Barreto.
The Candolim-Baga-Calangute coastal belt which has the highest
density of construction and unplanned development in Goa, is perhaps the
best example of all that is wrong with Goa's tourism planning, and the
politicians' penchant for favouring vested interests. -- Devika Sequeira
in Panaji
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