Margao: Stepping up his people’s movement to save Goa from wanton land conversion laws, retired Allahabad high court chief justice Ferdino Rebello addressed a well-attended gathering at Chandor on Friday, making a strong demand for govt to conduct carrying capacity studies for every village before permitting any new development projects.“We demand that govt carry out the carrying capacity study of every village,” Justice Rebello told the gathering. “Govt appointed an agency for the task, but made no funds available at its disposal to execute the work. We demand that govt make provision in the next fiscal for adequate funds to carry out the carrying capacity study.”He emphasised that the carrying capacity study would be crucial in determining whether villages can sustain mega housing projects. “The carrying capacity will help us determine if more housing projects in a village can be sustained or not. No projects should be allowed without determining the village’s carrying capacity,” he said.Calling for grassroots mobilisation, Justice Rebello urged people to form village-wise committees to take the movement forward. “Go to your respective MLAs and ask them, are you with us on these issues?” he said.He specifically asked people to demand the scrapping of sections 17(2), 39(A), and 17(A) of the Town and Country Planning Act from their elected representatives. “Tell them to raise this demand in the assembly. Tell them either you are with us to support Goa, or 2027 is coming, and we will give you our reply,” he said. The Chandor meeting is part of Justice Rebello’s ongoing “Enough is Enough” campaign to protect Goa’s ecology and challenge what he terms illegal permissions for land conversion and construction activities.At his previous public meeting in Margao, Justice Rebello announced plans to submit a letter to the TCP department seeking to stop permissions for hill/slope cutting and filling of low-lying areas. He argued that no rules were in force under the Planning Act for the Town and Urban Planning (TUP) department to grant such permissions since 1997.
