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NIZ GOENKARS RALLY FOR SAVE GOA MOVEMENT!By Praveena Sharma
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NIZ GOENKARS RALLY FOR SAVE GOA MOVEMENT!By Praveena Sharma

Cover Story, Jan 10- Jan 16, 2025 January 9, 2026 , by

The public meeting called by retired jurist Ferdino Rebello was a litmus test of whether Goans were ready for peaceful revolt against corruption and rampant illegalities in the State. They passed it

On January 6 (Tuesday), if you were a Niz Goenkar (true Goan), all roads led to Institute Menezes Braganza for a public meeting convened at mid-noon by the former chief justice of Allahabad High Court and politician Ferdino Rebello.
In his invitation to the public, he wrote; “to carry this cause forward towards its logical and just conclusion – safeguarding Goa for future generation – I am convening a meeting of those who extended their support, reached out personally, or expressed a desire to contribute more meaningfully”.
And the response was tremendous. The hall was packed with crowd to its brim and spilled over till the Azad Maidan, with the cry of ‘Enough is Enough’ and ‘Ankit Sonso Nezo’ reverberating all over.
Everyone meant business. Except for a few fiery speeches, every speaker focussed on issues needing urgent attention. It was not a platform for personal gratification.
Justice Rebello, who has emerged from his retired life to take up the cause of saving Goa from devastation, made it clear he was in it to get things done.
“In my vocabulary, there is nothing like impossible. And in your vocabulary (too), the same word should be there – nothing is impossible. I mean, we can fight everything and achieve everything,” he told the cheering crowd.
He called for return of morality and integrity in the society; “when we take corruption as a way of life what are we teaching our children? This must change. We must fight together,” he called out to the crowd.
He made a passionate plea for preserving Goa’s natural heritage by not allowing hill cutting and construction on hills.
The jurist reminded everyone that just as elected representative had the right to sit on the “chair” because of the Constitution, they had the right to protest because of the same document.
Talking on ownership of natural resources, he said the public trust doctrine trust in the Indian Constitution states that they did not belong to any person or the government, who is only a trustee on behalf of the people. He urged the intellectuals to speak up and not stay silent.
Dissecting the root cause of Goa’s rampant corruption, he said if the sections 17(2) and 39A of the town and country planning (TCP) Act, 1974 were repealed, it would plug the corruption in the system.
“This (section 17(2) and 39A) is the money source (of corrupt people) and this is what is corrupting our system. These sections must be repealed,” he urged.
Rebello also made a plea for amendment to the Goa Land Revenue Code (GLRC) to restrict sale of agriculture land to only agriculturists and ban people from outside from buying it. The passing of private member bill, recently introduced in the Parliament, for acquiring complete special status for Goa would go a long way in fulfilling this demand.
He pointed out how the scale of corruption in the State had shot up to unimaginable level; “during my time (around 1977), we never heard of this kind of corruption”.
According to him, the downhill journey of Goa began from second term of former chief minister Pratap Singh Rane.
“Today, corruption has become endemic. We must cut off the source of corruption and restore Goa,” he said.
Norma Alvares, leading lawyer and social activist, applauded the turnout at the public meeting, saying it showed the moment people were waiting for had arrived.
She said the Regional Plan (RP) put together by eminent architects and planners of the State in 2021 demarcated eco-sensitive zones that covered 82% of the total area of Goa. She termed it a “passport to good governance.”
“It (RP) is a document we must treasure and fight for our passport (to good governance,” she said.


Alvares criticised the attempts by “whosoever is in power to throw this document (RP) out of the window”. She said they were trying to do it unofficially by amending the TCP Act to dilute some of the eco-sensitive zones and strip them of protection.
“Government first introduced section 16B, then section 17(2 and then 39A. All these are designed to enable wealthy individuals and real estate companies to put their footprint and their hands and their full selves in Goa’s eco-sensitive areas,” she elaborated.
Alvares alleged TCP was putting up eco-sensitive zones for sale. This allows property owners to convert their property to any zone on paying certain per-sqm rate. The other way being adopted by them was to rope in private architects to manipulate zoning details.
Prodding the crowd to repeat ‘Enough is Enough” after her, she said; “we protest this kind of governance. We have a Regional Plan. You (government) have a duty to respect it. You have a duty to enforce it. We protest this kind of governance, where you keep the Regional Plan on paper but throw it out of the window on another side”.
Tahir de Noronha, urban planner, slammed underhand tactics being used by the authorities to destroy Goa’s ecology for the benefit of the real estate developers. The other prominent speakers at the public meeting were freedom fighter Rohidas Dessai (Dad), tribal leader Ravindra Velip, YouTuber and influencer Usman Khan Pathan and others.
Libia Lobo Sardessai, freedom fighter, did not let her age – 102-year-old – come in the way of attending the town hall that erupted in cheer as the 10-point charter was read out and concerned citizens spoke about issues affecting them.
From everything that was witnessed at this meeting, one thing was sure – and it was it had set the mood for a revolution in Goa.

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