New Delhi: A petition has been filed in the Bombay high court at Goa seeking to direct the government to stop construction of a memorial for former chief minister Manohar Parrikar on Miramar beach in Panaji.
Manohar Parrikar, a four-time chief minister from Goa and former Union defence minister, passed away on March 17, 2019, after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer and was accorded a state funeral the next day.
Parrikar was later posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan in January 2020.
The petition, filed by journalist Devika Sequeira, has said that the public beach “cannot be mismanaged, misused or appropriated for constructing a memorial by causing harm and damage,” According to a TOI report, the petition also said, “The memorial will destroy the public beach in terms of the findings of the one-man committee headed by Nandkumar Kamat, constituted by Parrikar.”
The committee had been appointed by the state in 2001 following a proposal to privatise Miramar beach.
The petition has sought an immediate halt to the construction of the memorial until the committee’s findings and recommendations are considered. The petition has also sought protection for beaches from any construction, including memorials.
Also read: Goa Govt Corners Chunk of ‘No Development’ Beach for Rs 8.5-Crore ‘Shrine’ to Parrikar
Speaking to The Wire, Sequeira said that as a journalist, it would be a conflict of interest for her to write and report on the case henceforth. “But as a citizen and someone who has been born and lived in this city almost my entire life I feel very strongly about the government’s decision to build another memorial on Miramar beach,” she said.
Sequeira said that was compelled to file a case after nobody else came forward to challenge the matter in court. “Unfortunately, we live in the age of supine and self-serving politicians. Not one of them – not even the MLA of Panjim or the environment minister to whom I appealed several times – dared question such a unilateral decision,” she said.
Underscoring the public’s collective right over the beach, Sequeira said, “The city shoreline is a part of our ecological heritage, and all of a sudden politicians who have no attachment to it are making a claim on this public heritage”.
Sequeira’s lawyer Rohit Bras De Sa told The Wire that the matter would come up for admission after the relaxation of the coronavirus notification by the high court. “The state through the attorney general is on private notice and appeared before the court yesterday. The hearing was deferred for the aforementioned reason,” he said.
The foundation stone for Parrikar’s memorial, which is expected to cost close to Rs 7.8-crore, was laid on the former chief minister’s 64th birth anniversary on December 13.
Miramar beach is classified as CRZ III under the coastal regulation laws. Environmentalists say no construction is allowed in such zones up to 200 metres of the high tide line (HTL), which pretty much includes the whole stretch of beach.
Goa’s BJP-led government intends to commemorate Parrikar’s first death anniversary on Tuesday with a series of programmes that are on track despite advisories against ‘mass gatherings’ in view of the coronavirus outbreak.