HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
According to The Goan Everyday, after a protracted 30-year legal struggle, a controversial hotel project at Primeiro Vaddo in Velsao has finally been demolished.
The battle against the hotel project was led by the late Matanhy Saldanha, the former minister and then-general secretary of Goenchea Raponkarancho Ekvott. Saldanha had filed a case against the construction, arguing that it violated the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 1991 guidelines. The case was initially brought before the High Court of Bombay at Goa and later referred to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Pune, which ordered the demolition in 2014. The Supreme Court of India upheld the demolition order in 2017.
Former Velsao panch, Camilo Souza, recalled that during his tenure, he gathered crucial evidence against the project on the instructions of Saldanha, who funded the legal challenge with his own money.
Olencio Simoes, a local resident, remembered how, as a teenager, he witnessed his uncle, Matanhy Saldanha, receiving death threats from hotelier interests but never yielding to the pressure.
“Today, the people of Velsao have finally found justice after decades of fighting,” Simoes said. “It’s disheartening that it took authorities seven years to act on the Supreme Court’s 2017 demolition order.”
Simoes also criticized authorities for approving large-scale projects in No Development Zones (NDZ), CRZ, and hilly areas, arguing that the CRZ notification was meant to protect the livelihoods of local communities, including fishers and farmers, and to preserve the coastal environment.
“Sadly, the very regulations designed to protect our communities are being used against them by permitting illegal mega projects in coastal areas,” he added.
source: The Goan Everyday
