TIRACOL RAKHONN MANCH – PRESS RESPONSE
The Tiracol Rakhonn Manch has learnt with much amusement the confirmation of the Chief Minister’s support for the Leading Hotels in Tiracol. Interestingly, he has claimed that he is unable to stop the project since they have all the required permissions. However, as a Chief Minister he is not interested to investigate or inquire in what manner those permissions have been acquired, if at all but as a spokesman for the Hotels he is defending the fraudulent ways in which the latter are moving ahead.
The Rakhonn Manch is interested to know if the Chief Minister has answers as to why an owner who claims to have all permissions had to begin work late night /early morning and that too by engaging bouncers?
The Chief Minister has also admitted that there are 99% small illegal hotels in Pernem and that he is not demolishing them because the livelihood of several people is dependent on them. The Tiracol Rakhonn Manch is also interested to know why the Chief Minister is not enabling the legalisation of such business ventures of the local people with the same enthusiasm that he is exhibiting to facilitate the promotion of the Golf Course and Resort of Leading Hotels.
The audacity in which the Chief Minister has admitted that he is in favour of four to five more major resorts, he has finally confirmed the fact that his Government is overtly interested in facilitating the Corporatization of Tourism spaces by displacing the locals of their livelihood.
The Rakhonn Mach wants to remind the Chief Minister that Goans have always risen as one body every time its environment is under threat of destruction. Just to cite two examples, the Nylon 66 hatao campaign was initiated by the villagers but later not only people of the surrounding areas joined in but Goans all across demanded it be rejected. Similarly, in recent times the SEZs were driven away from the State of Goa not only by the affected villagers but the rest of Goa did.
The Tiracol Rakhonn Manch wants to inform the Chief Minister that lots of people from all over Goa were in Tiracol to express their solidarity with us in our present struggles and everyone asked us who is our MLA and where is he?
Mr Francis Rodrigues
Convenor
09th June 2015
