Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: Advocate Amit Palekar has strongly criticised the BJP-led Goa government over large-scale land conversions and the delay in making public the magisterial inquiry report into the Birch Club fire tragedy that claimed 25 lives.
Palekar alleged that “slowly and steadily, lakhs and lakhs of square metres of land in Goa are being converted, either overlooked or overseen by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, while the Town and Country Planning department under Vishwajit P Rane continues land conversions undeterred, even after judicial intervention.”
Palekar said such conversions must be stopped immediately to protect Goa’s land and ecology.
Questioning the delay in releasing the magisterial inquiry report into the Birch Club fire, Palekar asked why the BJP government has failed to make the report public even 20 days after the incident, despite the Chief Minister assuring that it would be submitted within seven days.
“Twenty-five innocent lives were lost. Why is the report still not public? What is being hidden and who is being protected?” Palekar asked, alleging that several past inquiries had met the same fate of remaining out of the public domain.
He further stated that with the Zilla Panchayat elections over, the tragedy appears to have been pushed aside. “People have forgotten the deaths, life goes on, corruption continues and the BJP celebrates its victory while the opposition remains silent,” he said.
Expressing concern over growing public apathy, Palekar said it was distressing that Goans had become so indifferent that even the loss of human lives failed to evoke sustained outrage.
“I hope Yatish Naik remembers what he promised during the last television debate. I am waiting—not as the president of AAP Goa, but as a common Goan seeking accountability,” Palekar said.
