CHIMBEL UNITES AGAINST UNITY MALL! By Praveena Sharma

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CHIMBEL UNITES AGAINST UNITY MALL! By Praveena Sharma

The sheer force of their unity brought the State authorities to their knees, and made them listen to their voices

When every other means to save their wetland from destruction by the proposed Unity Mall failed, the people of Chimbel Village, along with the people from neighbouring villages, came together and created a force.
It was a force that compelled Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to offer public assurance of looking into their demands and made St Cruz MLA Rodolfo Louis Fernandes and Chimbel Zilla Panchayat member Gauri Kamat run for cover.
They laid siege to their houses and refused to back down. Even as they filled the streets to protest the vanity project of the Central government, a North Goa district court delivered a verdict, setting aside the illegal orders by the deputy director of Panchayats and block development officer (BDO) and cancelling the construction license by the Village Panchayat (VP) of Chimbel.
The villagers gheraoed the State authorities, which has for long been clandestinely working against them, from all sides. They refused release the pressure on them. The strength of police deployed at the site of the agitation spoke of the insecurity of the State government.
“It was a very systemically organised agitation for our demand, which are legitimate. We went on every door to be heard because none of them were listening to us. We took series of actions to see that they took us seriously. We will continue doing so,” said Govind Shirodkar, chairman of Chimbel Biodiversity Management Committee and the man heading the movement to oppose Unity Mall that many believe will cause environmental havoc in the region.
At the heart of the issue is the State government’s stubbornness in pushing the proposed Central government project on what the villagers of Chimbel claim is a wetland and their natural heritage.
Toyyar or Chimbel Lake was notified as a wetland by the Goa State Wetland Authority (GSWA) on September 2021 under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
According to the notification published in Goa’s official Gazette, the wetland area of Toyyar Lake in Chimbel is around 51,085 square meters (sqm). This has been contested by many experts saying its should boundaries should be expanded as per the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO) report to around 2.63 lakh sqm to protect the biodiversity in the region.

It is an issue, which has even grabbed the attention of Justice Ferdino Rebello, former chief justice of Allahabad High Court. At the public meeting of ‘Enough is Enough’ movement in Mapusa, he threw his might behind those fighting for their right to preserve their cultural and natural heritage.
In his address on Wednesday, he said, the BDO document shows the wetland’s influence of area as 26.304 hectares while its notified area is 17.2 hectares.
“Why has the remaining area not been notified? Because then the influence area will increase,” he said.
Justice Rebello spoke of the devastating effect of construction in the area on the springs, which feed the wetland.
“One day, we will start seeing the effect of construction on the springs and how they are going to affect the wetlands. Now, do you not owe it as a democratic government to your citizens to do a study of these issues before you say I am going to construct. What is the use of notifying a wetland if tomorrow it is going to be destroyed by your construction” the former CJI said.
He asked the government to do its homework before sitting down at the table for a discussion on the issue. He saw it as people’s right to protect their area.
“These are the extremely poor people (in Chimbel), not highly educated. They are the ones who work in the fields, who produce our agricultural produce. And, have they no right to say protect this area which has been with us for so long? Now, people are opposing. People are opposing because you have not done your homework. Do your homework and then come to the people. Understand what you are fighting for,” he lashed out at insensitivity of the government to empathise with people’s problems.
There is a section of people, who want to declare parts of the Chimbel as biodiversity zone or a protected Biodiversity Heritage Site under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. There are several draft proposals of gram sabha resolutions for marking the land around Toyyar Lake as a biodiversity park or protected ecological zone but nothing has moved beyond that.
Shirodkar talks of Panchayats preparing village development plan (VDP), on the line of the Regional Plan, for zoning of villages. He, however, said not much has moved in that direction too.
The case of Unity Mall in Chimbel brings to fore the vulnerability of Village Panchayats against irregular or illegal construction in villages. The Goa Panchayat Raj Act, notwithstanding, they have little say in development and planning of their villages.
This time, some members in Chimbel’s VP refused to buckle under political and bureaucratic might and have send the scripted plot of the past awry.
The Chimbel’s Village Panchayat rejected the construction license of Unity Mall, which had acquired technical clearance from the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department on August 21, last year. Apparently, it did so based on condition number 14 in the technical clearance order, which states that the Panchayat shall ensure the infrastructure to accommodate the Unity Mall.
In his application in the district court, Shirodkar clearly says Chimbel did not have the infrastructure to accommodate Unity Mall.
“There is shortage of water facility for village of Chimbel, the garbage control has reached its optimum considering the population and the area falling within the limits of village Panchayat and that the construction of the Unity Mall will directly affect wetland, which is at a very close distance from the area where Unity Mall is designed to be constructed,” he stated in his application in the district court.
This spurred the Stated authorities to tame the VP into submission by issuing illegal orders and coercing it into approving Unity Mall’s construction license withing 24 hours on November 28, 2025.
Now, the government wants to further clip the VP’s wings with the Goa Panchayats Raj (amendment) Bill, 2026 passed in the State assembly on Tuesday.
Soter D’Souza, who works with the Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP), told Goan Observer, said if the bill becomes an act, it will further diminish the powers of VP; “Panchayats are already functioning nothing more than extension counter of local MLA and government – managing garbage and infrastructure is not what local governance is about. They (Panchayats) lack the teeth to bite”.