“In Pernem taluka along the coastal belt, there are many hotels, 99 percent of those hotels are illegal” these are the words of our Chief Minister who is supporting the Tiracol Golf Course Resorts Project whole heartedly. Now the question is here why the honorable CM waited so long despite of knowing that the 99 per cent hotels are illegally operated in the coastal belt of Pernem? What was the reason behind this silence? Is Mr. CM is not responsible for the illegalities taking place in the state under his nose or CM wants to highlight the so called illegalities to justify the Tiracol Project?
Mr. Parsekar was talking to the media on the sidelines of the education department event in Porvorim close to the state capital. “This should not be a subject for a headline tomorrow,” Parsekar mentioned, while justifying his backing for a golf course cum five-star resort project in his legislative constituency of Mandrem, also in Pernem, which has faced opposition over the last several years. Pernem has the most popular beaches in Goa, like Morjim, Mandrem, Ashwem and Arambol, which are highly populated with tourists, especially Russians. The coastal fringe, which includes the four popular beaches, are part of Mandrem constituency which Parsekar represents.
The Chief Minister also clarified that he never opposed the illegal construction of hotels in his constituency because people were “Earning their Livelihood” with the projects and discretion were minor. Parsekar further stated that the Golf Course Project is facing the protest just because the promoters are taking the pains of completing all the legal formalities. “There are protests because they tried to complete all legal formalities. No one is complaining about so many other illegalities. How can the government create obstacles for someone who has done something legally?” he said.
Mr. Parsekar did not stop here he also claimed that the protest by civilians and political parties to the golf course is baseless as the Pernem is relatively underdeveloped and needs more five star hotels. “I am of the opinion that there should be at least four five-star hotels in the sub-district, from which we can cater to the electronic city and the Mopa airport which is coming up in the area,” he said. According to him this project will create 500 to 800 jobs for the local residents of Pernem.
He further clarified that the purchase of land for the project was done within the legal framework and his government has accepted the land conversion fees towards the land on which the proposed project taking shape and hence it will not be possible to back out from the same. On the one side CM is claiming that those people from Tiracol, who sold their own land for this project are now opposing the project, while contradicting his own statement he further mentioned that most of the locals from villages in Pernem taluka such as Arambol, Paliem and Morjim are supporting the particular project, and large number of people, who stood against the project are from other parts of Goa.
Targeting the opposition Parsekar said that the Tiracol project was given in-principal permission by the congress government, just before the Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in 2012, while he was the opposition MLA at that time. “I was an opposition MLA at that time, but did not oppose the project as it was in favour of the locals,” he recalled, reiterating, “I am the Chief Minister now and am definitely supporting it.”
While we contacted the GPCC secretary online for his output on the statement of the Chief Minister, he defended the party interest saying that “Laxmikant Parsekar was Mandrem MLA for the last 15 years, what he was doing for the last 15 years? And why he remained quiet for so long allowing the 99 per cent of the illegal hotel projects to mushroom up in Pernem.” This makes it clear that the BJP has been instrumental in getting these 99 per cent of the illegal hotel projects in Pernem.
Whatever the parties and their representatives says but the Question remains unsolved as does the projects are allowed on the merits that how big is the investors? Do our ministers allow the illegal activities just keep the voters happy? Do we really have any standards set for these kind of things in our constitution or Law? Who decides what is legal and what is illegal? Who is authorized to allow the illegal activities for the sake of “Earning their Livelihood”? Please do not forget to leave your feedback here.
(Source: IANS)
