Panaji: With Chimbel residents digging in at the Merces junction, chief minister Pramod Sawant met the demonstrators late at night on Thursday and assured them that the area around Toyyar Lake would be notified as a zone of influence and protected.
Sawant has steadfastly refused to consider shifting the location for the Unity Mall to another location.He also assured the protesters that if govt decided to appeal against the North Goa district court order, it would consult the locals before going ahead.“Taking into consideration the protest that has been going on for days, I assure you that the lake and the land around it will be notified as wetland zone as per NIO recommendations.
And it will be notified so that the lake and land around the lake remains protected,” said Sawant.Chairman of Chimbel Wetland Committee Govind Shirodkar said that around 3lakh sqm of land around the lake should be declared as zone of influence as per the NIO’s recommendation.“Even I am of the opinion that the lake has to be protected. At the end of the day, we are not against people,” said Sawant.He told the protesters that he would meet with the state’s legal advisors, particularly advocate general Devidas Pangam to discuss the next step. “We will take all of the residents into confidence and we will consult everyone. Even before we appeal, we will take them into confidence,” said Sawant.Residents of Chimbel staged a day-long protest, blocking the Merces junction and disrupting traffic to Kadamba Plateau, Old Goa and Ponda, after chief minister Pramod Sawant refused to scrap the proposed Unity Mall and Prashasan Stambh projects at a biodiversity site near Toyyar Lake.
The protesters had initially planned to march to the assembly but with the police preventing them from doing so. This prompted the demonstrators to make preparations to spend the night at Merces junction.The protest, which began at 10am, saw villagers, including elderly women and members of the tribal community, squat on the Old Goa Kadamba bypass and block traffic. A heavy police presence with lathis, riot gear, tear gas guns and a signal jammer was deployed to control the demonstration, with at least four buses of police personnel stationed at Merces, with some more around the assembly complex.Sawant has invited the leaders of the agitation for the next round of discussions in the coming week.“The Unity Mall is a central govt project and we cannot take a decision in haste. That is why, I have called the activists for another round of discussions on Monday or Tuesday,” said Sawant.During the day, the protesters sang songs, danced and even conducted a mock funeral for the Chimbel sarpanch.Villagers say the project threatens a sensitive biodiversity area where they traditionally foraged for herbs, fruits and vegetables.“As children, we used to climb and roam these hills. If this mall comes up, they will destroy the natural vegetation, the herbs that give us medicine. We will have to pay to visit the mall, the same place that we used to walk freely,” said a tribal protester.As evening approached, protesters escalated their agitation by blocking the road from Merces to Old Goa. Women voluntarily climbed into police buses while men sat on the streets, singing songs and incantations to local deities.
The disruption caused severe traffic jams during peak hours.North Goa collector Ankit Yadav met with the protesters and attempted to convince them to return home, but they remained steadfast.Opposition MLAs Yuri Alemao, Venzy Viegas, Altone D’Costa and Viresh Borkar joined the protest, along with activists from across Goa. Several AAP and RGP functionaries were also seen in solidarity with the protesters. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal also jumped in. Kejriwal criticised BJP govt in a post on X, saying, “It is unfortunate that Goa’s BJP govt is ignoring its own people’s demands for the past 18 days. Is a ‘Unity Mall’ more important than the wishes of the villagers?”
