Adv Carlos demands Statue of Dr Jack de Sequeira in Assembly; recommends amendments to CRZ to benefit fisherfolk

AUGUST 6, 2024

Adv Carlos demands Statue of Dr Jack de Sequeira in Assembly; recommends amendments to CRZ to benefit fisherfolk

PANAJI: Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Tuesday demanded that a statue of Dr Jack de Sequeira, father of the Opinion Poll be installed in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
He also urged that state government should write to the Union Environment Ministry for an amendment to the CRZ notification to allow for the regularisation of legal houses CRZ coastal communities in the CRZ and they could be permitted to use up to 50% of the structure for commercial use.

Speaking during the discussion on demands for grants to the Environment Department, Adv Carlos also demanded more staff for the Pollution control Board to ensure that the sound pollution is monitored especially during the tourism season.

“The dwelling units of traditional coastal communities including fisherfolk, tribals on their own land — I’m not talking of trespassers, not talking of encroachers– on which they have acquired statutory right to the extent under the GDD Mundkar Act, but which have not obtained formal approval from concerned authorities under the aforesaid notification, shall be considered by the respective CZMAs and the dwelling units shall be regularised subject to the following conditions viz. not more than 50% of the premises is used for commercial activity and these are not sold or transferred to non traditional coastal communities so that it remains with the traditional coastal communities,” Adv Carlos said.

“It’s not as if you regularise and then get somebody from Delhi, Bombay, Haryana or somebody coming and buying it and doing something there. Why am I saying this? You will remember when our fisherfolk used to give their houses to foreigners, tourists and would earn money from that. They don’t go to the sea 24 hours a day or 365 days in a year. So if today they put a restaurant or something similar, at least half the house has to be used for this purpose and stay in the rest of those. They don’t have to go abroad, they don’t have to go on the ship. If the government of Goa pushes this, then we can have this in a big way going through,” he said.

“An amendment can be made by the Central Government; it is in your power to recommend such an amendment,” he said.

He also demanded that the government tackle CRZ violations at an early stage and not wait for the violators to complete the project before taking action.

“The moment you act with speed you stop people from crying and saying so much of my money is gone, my investment, my family is dependent. Whenever there are CRZ violations we should not allow it,” he said.

You hear complaints, there are petitions in the high court about sound pollution. It is impossible for our mamlatdars, dy collector and pcb to keep running every time there is a phone call. Increase your number of staff at the season time especially,” he also said.

—