Since the start of this year, Goa has been on the boil. Across the State, village after village has taken to the streets to protest against unpopular development projects—both public and private—that have been gobbling up increasingly large tracts of ecologically sensitive farmland and hill slopes. This onslaught has been under way for well over a decade, steadily transforming Goa’s landscape, demography, and way of life. Now, public anger is spilling over.
The flashpoints are everywhere. In Arambol, an entire hill—measuring around 3 lakh square metre, much of it classified as a no development slope—was converted into settlement land. The sight of villagers marching with flaming torches in opposition to the conversion spooked Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vishwajit Rane enough for him to roll the plan back. In Chimbel, a 44-day agitation forced the government to cancel its plan to build a mall on land that villagers said fell within a lake’s catchment area. And most recently, the villagers of Siridao staged an overnight occupation of the TCP office to oppose the provisional conversion of around 84,000 square metres of land—large parts of which were zoned as no-development slopes. Police action against the protesters triggered an even larger protest. Thousands converged on the State capital, Panaji, to demand the repeal of Section 39A of the TCP Act—the legal provision enabling most of the land conversions.
In this season of discontent, Ferdino Rebello, a retired Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, former Janata Party MLA, and self-described lifelong champion of people’s causes, has emerged as a lightning rod. On January 7, in the aftermath of the Arambol protest, he held a public meeting in Panaji to discuss the rot at the heart of Goa’s governance. The audience that gathered was large, agitated, and hungry for action. The fury that had been quietly brewing in disparate corners of Goa seemed to have found common cause that day. “Enough is enough,” went the call from the stage. “Ani sosun nejo [We can’t take it anymore],” came the response from the people in Konkani.
The Enough is Enough movement’s goals are laid out in a 10-point people’s charter drafted by Rebello in consultation with activists across the State. At its core is a demand to repeal Section 39A of the TCP Act and amend Section 17A to restrict development on hill slopes
The charter also calls for carrying-capacity studies across the State to assess whether local infrastructure can sustain further development before any new projects are approved. Another key demand is for the sale of agricultural land to be restricted to agriculturalists who have been resident in the State for at least 30 years.
The many casinos anchored in the river Mandovi near Panaji are also in the charter’s crosshairs. The movement demands their immediate removal, arguingthey are polluting the river and placing excessive stress on the city’s infrastructure.
Some of these demands took the form of a Bill, drafted by Rebello and submitted for introduction in the ongoing session of the Goa Assembly by opposition MLAs. The BJP-led government blocked the introduction of the Bill in the recently concluded Assembly session despite protests by opposition MLAs. Other demands are being pursued through the courts—Rebello is currently involved with a case targeting hill-cutting permissions under Section 17A; in another seeking prosecution of government officers involved in approving illegal conversions; and a third one challenging casino licences.
How the movement fares will likely have enormous consequences for Goa’s land, its people, and its politics for years to come. With the stakes this high, Frontline spoke to the man at the centre of it.
Excerpts from the conversation:
What motivated you to get involved in the issues currently plaguing Goa?
For the last one year, I have been watching what is happening to Goa, and I thought the youth of Goa would really take up these issues, but that was not to be. I said to myself, if the youth are not speaking, then somebody must speak. And secondly, I felt that somebody must unite all these activists and groups who are fighting to preserve Goa’s environment.
A series of legal provisions—16 B, 17(2), and now 39A—in the TCP Act have enabled rampant land conversion. Each time acitvists go to court and stalled one of them, the government brings a new provision to do the exact same thing again. How confident are you that pursuing a legal or legislative solution will lead to actual change?
The legislature is the only forum that can amend the laws, and the situation can only change through a change of laws. But of course, we can’t leave everything to the legislature. If the legislature has done something wrong, it is the courts that must set it right. So, we are talking about both asking the courts to strike down the sections and calling upon the legislature to repeal Section 39A and to amend 17A.
You have identified the TCP department and the minister concerned, specifically, as a primary centre of corruption within this current administration.
I have written to the Prime Minister pointing out that these sections — 39A and 17(2), along with 17A of the TCP Act—are the sources of corruption in Goa. Unfortunately, there has been no response from the Prime Minister’s office. I have not identified a minister. But perhaps it is apparent from what is happening.
Goa’s Arambol beach. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Most of Goa’s MLAs and politicians are personally involved in real estate. How does one look at this at the level of a political system, given that Goan politics seems intertwined with real estate?
It is because that is the only source of money, and not only today. It started a long time back—in the 1990s. There was one Chief Minister—he has recently expired—people say that during his regime he hiked the illegal demands which had to be met for conversion of land from Rs.2 to Rs.100. There was public outcry but no protest. And now it has spiralled out of control. Now, it is not only money, now they are asking for a share of what has been constructed—bungalows, flats. I can’t verify this part of it. But if there is smoke, there must be a fire somewhere. It is understood that these things are done as quid pro quo.
If what we are proposing is accepted by this Assembly or the next Assembly, at least 85 per cent of this corruption will be cut off; 15 per cent will remain because people will always find loopholes.
It appears that not just the government, but ordinary Goan people are also caught up in this process. The economy is not generating enough jobs, and land seems to be the only monetisable asset.
According to the regional plan, the settlement zone in Goa is 534 square kilometres. This land can be developed and monetised.
But 85 per cent of Goa’s land is agricultural. This land cannot be monetised. Using provisions like Section 39A, 17(2), people are trying to monetise such land. If somebody wants to buy your agricultural land, if it can be sold, fine, sell it, but the man who buys it can’t convert it. That’s the point. That is where the corruption starts—with the officers who allow such land to be converted.
This tension between protecting the environment and Goan way of life and earning money, seems to repeatedly come up. Casinos in the Mandavi are currently in focus, and previously it was night clubs in the coastal belt. Each time, an argument is made that these things are powering Goa’s economy—that you need casinos for Panaji to be financially viable, for example. How would you respond to this?
How many Goans are working in these casinos? Was Panaji not working before the casinos came in? At least 85 to 90 per cent of the people working in the casinos would be people from other parts of the country. Since they don’t have work in their States, they are coming here. That’s fine, everybody has to earn a livelihood. But the argument that Panaji can’t survive without the casinos cannot be made. Since they have come in, Panaji is facing problems of congestion, of the roads being dirty, of people urinating in the night on people’s houses. And who is bearing the brunt of all this?
We are a small State. Why can’t these casinos go to the big States? They want to catch small States where they can control the political setup. Because if you go to the bigger States, perhaps they would have to dish out much more to buy people than over here.
You’ve spoken of the need to create organisational capacity at the taluka and village level. Is this building towards a permanent organisation, or are you focussed specifically on achieving the charter?
The objects of the charter can only be met if we have organisation all across Goa in every taluka. If the politicians in power don’t implement the charter, then people must have the power to do what they want. As far as I am concerned, for the moment, the goal is achieving the demands in the charter. We are not building a permanent organisation. If the charter’s goals are met, substantially, that’s it.
You’ve been encouraging young people to participate, but there is fear among the youth about arrests and prosecution. The government has filed an FIR against 1,500 people just for gathering in a public place. How do you speak to Goan youth who want to participate but are scared?
I give them my example. During the fishermen’s movement [against mechanised trawlers, in the late 1970s], I was in prison for three days for breaching Section 144 restrictions. That did not deter me from becoming what I have become.
I don’t encourage violence. At the beginning itself, I said we believe in satyagraha. We have peaceful protest, non-cooperation. These are the instruments that we must use, and also the legal forums in areas where we can’t achieve our goals through protest.
How would you address the anxiety that many Goans have about inward migration, given the fear of loss of identity and loss of voting power?
Today, I went to speak at Rosary College, Navelim. One of the professors there was one Mr Amitabh Yadav—and he spoke in fluent Konkani. People have been absorbed, they have learned a language, they have become a part of our land. Have we Goans not gone to Bombay or to other places?
Of course, Bombay’s Marathi character has practically disappeared in some places. And because Goa is a small State, the impact [of inward migration] is felt more. In fact, Justice Nagarathna said we will not allow Goa to become another Bombay. A sitting judge of the Supreme Court who will become the Chief Justice of India within a few months—she said this in the open court. Now this is echoing in the halls of the Supreme Court. Everybody feels it.
But migration is bound to happen. If your people don’t work, there’s no choice. You can’t tell them to come for a holiday and then go back. We have to think in terms of how we are going to make them a part of our society.
There has been a lot of excitement in public meetings and calls for you to contest elections. Are you interested in participating in the political process?
I’ve been asked this time and again. At the last meeting in Chandor, I said I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. That oath continues, and I don’t want to break that oath by becoming a politician.
Visvak is a writer and editor, mostly of narrative non-fiction.
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