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NOW COASTAL BELT UNDER RENEWED ATTACK!
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NOW COASTAL BELT UNDER RENEWED ATTACK!

CRZ Violation, Jan 31- Feb 06, 2026 January 30, 2026 , by

While the focus is on the TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane it is not known that the Enviromental minister Alexio Sequiera has condomed large sake CRZ violations

COASTAL land along the seaside, backwaters, salt pans and khazan lands are the new target of the rapacious building lobby. Village after village is revolting against a renewed attempt to bend the CRZ rules to help the building lobby. The State and Central governments are trying to rush through a new coastal regulation management plan ignoring the voices of those who are likely to be worst affected.
There has always been a high premium on ocean view villas. The 5-star hotels have illegally colonized all the beachfront properties if not the beaches altogether. The haste to push through drastic changes in the CRZ regulations plan is fuelled by the frenzy to put up 5-star hotels and premium studio apartments in the now no development zones of the CRZ. For instance, five more 5-star hotels are planned and have been given permission in the extremely fragile Anjuna-Vagator beach belt, including two hotels by the Taj Group.
WHAT is happening to the coastal management plan is an action replay of the illegal dilution of the 2021 regional plan and the mutilation of the Town & Country Planning rules. The modus operandi is simple. Build a structure including a mega 5-star hotel in the no development zone. If the project is challenged in the high court get a stay order in the Supreme Court. Considering that it takes a case up to 20 to 30 years to be finally heard in the Supreme Court, the hotels can mint money in the meanwhile. Even if the SC upholds the demolition orders, you can get a friendly chief minister, a la Digambar Kamat, to change the law retrospectively, as was done in the case of the Cidade da Goa.

DUBIOUS DISTINCTION AMCHE GOEM
Goem has the dubious distinction of accounting for 50% of all CRZ violations in the country. Answers to assembly questions reveal that there have been over 1,000 major violations of the coastal rules in the last three years in Goa alone. Most shockingly in 28% of the cases registered for illegal construction in the no development zone, orders of the high court and the green tribunal have not been implemented.
After a prolonged battle the mega residential complexes in the no development zones of Goa Velha, where a huge mega project has come up in the backwaters, only now are beginning to be demolished, that is, after 20 years of the violation. The well-greased panchayats are very slow to act on illegal structures in their backyards. The worst offenders are of course the villages of Anjuna, Vagator, Candolim, Calangute and Baga, all controlled by MLAs Michael Lobo and wife Delilah Lobo.
The Anjuna panchayat has been hauled up by the high court for its failure to demolish the huge shopping complexes which have come up in the no development zone, in defiance of demolition orders from the Bombay high court and National Green Tribunal. The high court has repeatedly ordered demolition and removal of illegal structures in CRZ areas. There are many cases where permissions were never granted for the structures which have come up. New structures which have mushroomed after the 1991 CRZ notification barring any development within 90 meters off protected areas.

MANGROVES TREASURE TROVE
NOTABLE examples are the land filling in Murda which is part of the Merces communidade lands where the high court recently ordered that the land-fills and retaining walls and fencing off illegal projects, should be removed and the areas restored as before. The Murda region in Merces is a treasure trove of mangroves. The court has ordered demolition of the river front illegal structures on the Mandovi river banks. The court has also ordered the demolitions of illegal jetties, restaurants and concrete platforms. In most cases the CRZ violations have been acknowledged but demolitions have been delayed indefinitely.
 To cite some examples, the authorities have failed to demolish houses and compound walls within the mangrove buffer zones in Taleigao and Santa Cruz. The illegal bunds, excess roads and concrete buildings on khazan lands on Chorao island continue to survive despite demolition orders. The orders of the courts in relation to commercial platforms, jetties and restaurants in the Ribandar and Panaji creek belt have been blatantly ignored. Mumbai actor Shilpa Shetty and friends nightclub in the village of Mojim has not been demolished, despite court orders. Only a token cosmetic demolition was carried out and the nightclub allowed to function through Christmas and New Year 2025.
The most notorious cases of violation of the CRZ rules are nightclubs like Birch by Romeo Lane in Arpora, where a major fire in December 5, 2025 claimed 25 lives. A Ribandar club was sealed following inspection for serious violations. Salud, a nightclub in Anjuna, which has been sealed along with others for CRZ violations, is back in action. So is the Mayan Beach Club in Morgim. There is also the Cape Goa Hotel which has come up in the no development zone of the Cabo da Rama fort. An illegal hotel in Mandrem beachside promoted by the Naik brothers — Lakshmikant, Sadguru and Baburam Naik — have been served notice for their illegal hotel on restricted coastal land in Mandrem. Some venues like Curlies, the infamous Anjuna beach shack, has a long history of CRZ violations, including demolition orders upheld by the National Green Tribunal.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
THERE are hundreds of instances of illegal structures in the coastal regulation prohibition areas. The Goa government and the environment minister is in the process of diluting the CRZ rules to help the building and the hotel lobby. But the Enough is Enough movement convened by retired Justice Ferdino Rebello should come to the help of villages which are resisting plans to dilute the coastal regulation rules.

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