By Rajan Narayan
AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court blocked Michael Lobo from turning the northern beach belt into an urban slum. For a Saturday following the week when there was a brief disruption in air services to the Gulf countries in the wake of the conflict between the United States and Iran. For a Saturday following the week when there was a shocking instance of attacks on a gay couple in Siolim in Goa.
AND a few stray thoughts on the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court blocking Michael Lobo from turning the northern beach belt into an urban slum. In its latest order, the Bombay High Court has scrapped the Outline Development Plans (ODPs) of Calangute, Candolim, Arpora, Nagua and Parra villages. As far back as May 3, 2023 the High Court had observed that Michael Lobo was the major beneficiary of the changes in the zone from orchard to commercial and settlement in the North Goa coastal belt.
More specifically, within the limits of the Calangute and the Siolim constituency, both of which are controlled by the Lobo family. While Michael Lobo is the MLA in Calangute, his wife Delilah Lobo is the Siolim MLA, the constituencies cover Arpora, Parra, Nagua, Anjuna and Vagator. The High Court had accused Michael Lobo of converting his own personal properties to promote concrete development and construction in the coastal areas.
On July 13, 2022 the North Goa Planning & Development Authority sent notices to the review committee naming former chairperson Michael Lobo and Francis Silveria of major illegalities in making zone changes in the ODP. It was later found that Michael Lobo had made 401 changes in the ODP on behalf of builders from outside Goa.
In fact, the then government issued a fresh notification on August 12, 2022 stating that a grey emergency situation had developed and superseded the April 28 notification and suspended major parts of the ODP of Calangute and Candolim. To protect the illegal changes, Michael Lobo joined the BJP on September 14, 2022. Subsequently, as a favor to Michael Lobo the TCP board approved all the zone changes which had been rejected by the High Court. On the contrary, 142 new zone changes were added. On December 13, 2022 the government notified of revised ODPs, which, according to HC, were even more drastic than the earlier ODPs. Bending over backwards to please Michael Lobo, the government withdrew the five villages as planning areas and declared that MGPDA would have no authority over the five villages. The TCP directly issued clearances for development and zoning based on Michael Lobo’s conversions. All the sale deeds and conversions were issued directly by the TCP. The HC granted intervenor’s relief on February 14, 2024 directing that no further zoning certificates or conversion sanat could be issued.
THE government reacted by issuing an ordinance to continue the ODP. Architect Dean D’Cruz challenged the ordinance, and the court froze the operation of the ODPs. All these attempts to sabotage the objections to the conversions have culminated in the latest High Court order suspending the ODPs of all five villages in the Calangute constituency.
It must be noted that the SC had turned down the special league petition of the Goa government to enable the continuation of the outline development plans. The HC had observed that 95% of the applications under section 39A involved changes from orchard (2.4 lakh sq mtrs) and natural cover (1.4 lakhs sq mtrs) to settlement. The HC had made it clear that no construction activities should be permitted in the five villages of Calangute, Candolim, Arpora, Nagua and Parra on the basis of the conversions certificates issued by Michael Lobo.
US-IRAN CONFLICT
AND a few stray thoughts on the brief disruption in air services in the Gulf in the wake of the conflict between the United States and Iran. Iran on Monday, June 23 launched a missile attack on the American defense bases in Qatar and Iraq. Promptly, the UAE and Qatar closed down their airspace. This led to a massive disruption of air services with hundreds of flights from various Indian cities to Dubai, Doha, Abu Dabi and Sharjah and Saudi Arabia being suspended.
Among the flights suspended were the flight from Lucknow to Dammam in Saudi Arabia and from Amritsar to Dubai. All flights from Goa to the Gulf and back were also suspended. Since the Gulf airports are major transit points for international flights many flights to Europe, UK and the US were also suspended. Among the worst affected airline was Indigo, which operates a large number of flights to the Gulf countries. Conversely, all the flights of Gulf-based airlines like the Emirates, Itihat and other Gulf-based airlines have been grounded. The closure of the airspace in the Gulf and in Qatar began around 9 pm (IST) when Qatar shuts its airports for commercial flights. This affected all flights to Doha.
“The Straits Times” published from Malaysia and Singapore, however, claims that some degree of normalcy has been restored. Gulf Air had reportedly extended cancellations to Amman, Bagdad and other destinations. The situation is likely to get worse if Iran attacks American air bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Because of the closure of the Middle-Eastern airspace it may take longer to reach destinations in Europe and the United States.
GAY COUPLE
AND a few stray thoughts on the shocking instance of attacks on a gay couple residing in Siolim in Goa. Siolim is among the Goan villages which had attracted a large number of Indian upper-class migrants including celebrities. Apurva Asrani, a writer from Aligad, had complaint on social media that he and his partner Neeraj were abused by a drunk neighbor in their Siolim housing complex. The neighbor apparently called Neeraj and his partner dirty “homoes” and “fricks” and hurled abuses at them. When the couple reported the incident to the housing society there was no response. Apurva points out bitterly if a lady had been harassed or insulted, there would have been a major uproar.
Historically, Goa has been considered a very enlightened state, which is very supportive of the gay community. It may be recalled that Goa was the home of the late Wendall Rodrigues, the iconic fashion designer, who did not make any secret of his sexual orientation. Wendall even signed an official French marriage contract with his partner at his residence in Thivim. It is disturbing that there should be such a violent reaction to a gay couple in Siolim.
CYBER FRAUDS
AND a few stray thoughts on the increasing number of cyber frauds exploiting senior citizens and young people through the offer of cheap loans. The cyber crooks use social media platforms to persuade unemployed young people with tempting schemes so as to later rent their bank accounts and sim cards to earn additional money. This bank accounts and sim cards are rented out to people running cyber scams. The cyber scam operators offer cheap loans and direct victims to download loan applications. They claim to provide Rs10,000 to the victims but once the app is downloaded, they take control of the phone and access all the contacts. Once the contacts are accessed the fraudsters withdraw all the money from the victims’ accounts.
The police have asked the youth not to rent out their bank accounts and their SIM cards. There are hundreds of messages on social media, particularly Instagram, offering instant loans up to Rs10 lakh. Many senior citizens have been cheated to the extent of several crore rupees. The SC has now permitted the preventive detention of cyber criminals.
FASHION BUSINESS
AND a few stray thoughts on the Aditya Birla Group decision to expand its presence in the fashion business. It is not widely known that the lifestyle brands Luis Philipe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England are owned by the Birla group. The Aditya Birla Group also has a major share in several fashion houses. The chairman of the Birla Group, Kumar Manglam Birla, has revealed that the turnover from the fashion brands has crossed a billion dollars. These brands owned by Birla who started out with men’s wear has diversified to include women’s wear, footwear, bags and accessories. The Indian fashion market is reported worth $170 billion annually.
WHITE TONE NOW!
AND a last stray thought on a brand called “White Tone” which has replaced the banned “Fair & Lovely.” It may be recalled that due to objections from women’s groups “Fair & Lovely” — the Hindustan Lever face cream, had to withdraw the product. “Fair & Lovely” made big bucks on the desire of all Indian women to be fair and lovely. Now a new brand called “White Tone” has replaced “Fair & Lovely.” Reportedly, the old “Fair & Lovely” has become “Glow & Lovely.” This and “White Tone”encourage women with dark skin tones to apply the whitening cream and face powder to make their complexion white and glowing.