Protests in Goa over land-use amendment enter fourth day

GOa’s working capital, Panaji, witnessed uninterrupted protests for tetrad years, with thousands of citizens assemblage in the state capital demanding that the government scrap the controversial Section 39A of the Town and Country Planning Act. This provision, enacted in 2024, grants the Town and Country Planning Department the power to change land zoning, including converting "green” zones, where no construction is allowed, to “settlement” zones, thereby opening them up for construction.The movement, led by opposition parties including the Revolutionary Goans, the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, and others, and labelled “karo ya maro” (do or die), continued late into the night. Protesters marched over 10km from Azad Maidan, a public space in the city, to the residence of Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane at Dona Paula on the outskirts, overcoming several police barricades. Rane was not home at the time.Speaking to the media late on Tuesday, chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the protesters have the right to protest but should maintain decorum.“They have a right to protest, but it should be within limits. They can protest at Azad Maidan. They should give a proper representation. The collector is there; they can always hand it over to him. Nobody has stopped them. But to march to a minister’s house and take the law into one’s own hands is improper, and it does not behove MLAs to do this,” Sawant said on Monday evening, without directly addressing the protesters’ demands.The protests are being led by Viresh Borkar, an MLA of the San André constituency, who, along with villagers from Palem-Siridao, has been demanding the withdrawal of five notifications that converted nearly 100,000sqm of orchards, private forests, and non-developable land into settlement zones on the hill overlooking the village. Locals said this would mean the end of their village.“Under this section, rampant land conversions are being allowed, and it is destroying entire villages across Goa. We are demanding that this section be scrapped. Till this demand is fulfilled, I will continue my hunger strike,” Borkar said.The first protest was held on Wednesday, when villagers held a torchlight rally through the village demanding that the notification be scrapped. The following day, hundreds of villagers gathered at the office of the Town and Country Planning Department and camped outside, demanding that the notification be scrapped. When their demand was not accepted, they decided to camp at the office overnight and did so until they were forcefully evicted on Saturday. Following this, Borkar called for a “mega” protest on Sunday, which saw an attendance of more than 10,000 people.When a similarly large crowd gathered on Monday evening, the protesters decided to march to the residence of Rane and have now decided to continue the protest there.Section 39(A), a contentious provision, is the subject of several ongoing protests in the state, with residents of various villages, including Arambol and Mandrem in north Goa, and Sancoale and Betqui Candola in south Goa, all demanding the recall of land conversions in their respective villages.Rane called the protest a “blackmail” tactic and demanded that Borkar debate the issue in the Legislative Assembly rather than on the streets. He has yet to comment on the ongoing protest outside his residence.